Luna Park

Another trip down Memory Lane: Luna Park.

Only Luna Park isn't Luna park anymore. It's Azur Park. And instead of being charged ten Francs per ride, which was the case in the old days, it's now four euros. That's four euros per person for a ride on the bumper cars, or the roller coaster, or a walk through the maze.

Alternately, you could buy a park ticket, which will give you one pass for each of the rides and you'll end up paying a lot less. But not all the rides. The rides you'll get passes for will depend on which ticket you get. There's the Baby Pass, which means one pass on most of the smaller rides. There's a kid's pass, which lets you on a few of the bigger rides, not the baby rides. There is an adult pass, for people who want the bigger roller coasters, the tilt-a-whirls, and the haunted houses. And then there is the Extreme-Crazy-Person pass, for those who like bungee jumping and being shot into outer space in a slingshot, put in a tin can and shaken, and turned upside down until every single last one of your brain cells have died.

My boys loved Luna Park. But we ran into a few problems: First, Nick was old enough for a bigger kid's pass. We purchased the baby pass for him anyway, figuring he'd want to stick with his brothers, etc. But he still wanted to do a few of the bigger things. We'd given him 20 euro for learning how to swim across the pool and back (Steve's idea of motivation - it worked!) and we told him he could spend it there, at the park. And he did. Nate had less cash, but also decided to spend it on extra rides.

Andy cried when his brothers went into a fun house he was too small for. So I took him over to a claw game. I figured it would keep him busy, and I could spend some 20 cent bits. BIG MISTAKE. When Andy didn't win, he cried. Then Nick came over from the fun house and started putting HIS coins into the machine, and when he didn't win, HE cried.

On a lark, I took Nate into a Haunted House. He was scared, but was OK. Andy was upset he wasn't included, despite Steve trying to bribe him with churros.

Then the boys wanted to go into a walk-though haunted pirate house thingy. Steve said he would go with them.

Any sobbed, but I let him do a fishing game and he won a plane.

And after what seemed like forever, Nick and Nate and Steve came out of the Haunted House. And both boys, Nick and Nate, burst into tears. "It was So Scary!" Nate cried! Apparently it was so awful, so dark, and Steve had no choice but to keep pushing the boys through because there were people behind them.

The boys were traumatized. I couldn't help but laugh, which I suppose was kind of mean for me. After that we put them on the trampolines, and then we went home. Next time we might buy one ticket up, but we'll be skipping the haunted house.