Festival of Flags

It's that time of year, the time when rinky dink and rickety fairs and carnivals pop up like mushrooms. Last year Frederick discovered that he LOVES (and I mean LOVES) ferris wheels. So when Simon saw the signs for Festival of Flags in Davison, we knew what we would be doing this weekend. We intended to go opening day, but it was hot and oppressive (migraine weather). Finally today I took Frederick and we got there right when they opened the gates--only to discover that many of the rides, including the [expletives] ferris wheel were not running because of a light drizzle. (Apparently even the slightly dampness causes the brakes to fail--NOT reassuring.) Frederick did screw on a happy face and agree to try out new rides. This one is a rope/slide contraption. It was limited to kids 40-54" tall, which includes him. I was very surprised he was willing to go on alone. At one point the trail seemed to run cold and he became very confused, but once the ticket collector explained that he had to stretch through a bunch of bungie cords that were blocking the path, he managed just fine.

Here he is, heading toward the very top, which ends with a giant ass slide (which gave him a giant wet ass since everything was wet from rain).

This was the first of the "sick rides". This one is slow to spin, but does go up and down. Here it is, just about to go up. When it went very high, Frederick burst into a smile.

After this we tried the "bear scramble" which required us to climb into a big shell that spun around and round. There was a round disk between us that, if I pulled on it, would cause the cage to spin around very, very fast. Of course, that is what he loved best. Finally, he saw the best sick ride of all--The Ski Slopes. When I took this picture, we were watching other people spin round very, very fast while explosive noises echoed around. The teens laughed hysterically and the parents concentrated on not vomiting. I was hoping that he wouldn't want to go on but no way--it was all he could do to wait for the previous riders to climb off before he sprang into a seat. The faster it went, the happier he was. After we got off (and it took a VERY LONG TIME to end) he announced that he wanted to go home (yeah!!), eat a snack, wait for dark, then come back with daddy. Simon was thrilled when we told him the news.