Chez PLJ

To celebrate my dad’s birthday, my mom took available family out to 360, the CN Tower restuarant the other night. Jon loves the CN Tower (for its elevators) and the restaurant (for the rotating view and the passing structural bulkheads).

Midori making lemonade with all of our lemon wedges.

In fact, Jon’s love for bulkhead spotting netted he and Midori a souvenir when, late in the meal, he lunged at an upcoming bulkhead, knocking over a candle lamp, which in turn broke a water galss square onto Midori’s half-eaten dessert. Since Midori had found the chocolate mousse a little too rich anyway, she declined a replacement dessert, and the staff presented Midori and Jon with adorable souvenir drinking glasses.

Yesterday, Midori and I spent the day at Canada’s Wonderland, where I went on almost every ride she dragged me to. (I did avoid the Sledgehammer–I had a bad experience with overaggressive interior facing spinning at the Disney World teacups when I was ten, and the SH added sudden up and downs to just such spinning. Maybe next time.) We did enjoy the Minebuster, the Cyclone and the Drop Zone. Just as the Austrailian aboriginals purportedly believed that the camera steals a piece of your soul, Midori believes that a bit of you is left at the top of the DZ, and a serious chunk of me is still somewhere up there, let me tell you. Wow, that drop is intense. I like it very much, but the 45 minute wait was too long to do it again. So off went went to repeat the Wilde Beast, the Minebuster and Cyclone. Midori located the perfect seats for the Cyclone. Eight or ten seats to the left of the control panel on the ride as you enter to board. Those seats are the ones that face directly down during the hangtime when the ride is at 120 degrees up in the air. Zero gees. Wheee!

I found most of the new rides roller coasters and such had all of their thrills in the first drop, after that it was just lightly pounding you on the head and shaking you up, perhaps for loose change. Give me the Wilde Beast and the Minebuster any day (happily, I’m in tune with today’s youth–Midori agrees with me!)

Sadly, everything seemed a little more intense than when I was there 10 or so years ago. I guess I’m getting old and more sensitive to being roughed up. I hope Midori or Tamo visit again in the next few years so that I can go again before I age my way off the roller coasters.