Denver Colorado Trip Report: Part IV

So, I know what you're thinking.

"That last update had.....like..... a million kiddie coasters and maybe two sh*tty pictures of the coasters at Lakeside. I want my money back."

WORRY NOT!!! For I come bearing pictures of Lakeside Cyclone that aren't just of the station & pictures of the Wild Chipmunk that don't have an evil grey cloud in the background. The weather was great, so after we finished up at Lakeside we drove around the area to get some good outside-park shots. We also went to the aquarium :}

Back for more Cyclone!

After the park's old Ferris Wheel closed, they decided to simply leave the structure standing. Now it's just a sad Ferris Wheel skeleton.

The gang's all here, eagerly awaiting the opening of Cyclone for ERT.

The ride operators are very proud of Cyclone's rolling stock. After they finished polishing, they took turns peeling grapes & hand-feeding them to the train.

Wild Chipmunk is ready for ERT too!

As promised, here's some decent pictures of Cyclone. More will come later.

See?! Look! Cyclone picture. Bam.

The Wild Chipmunk has pretty decent through-put for a ride with 3 single-seat cars.

"Smile, Steve!"

"Smile, Leo!"

I didn't have to tell Leonard to smile. The Wild Chipmunk took care of that for me! :}

The boys and I decided to go ahead and get our powered-Dragon-Wagon credit. (lol)

Group photos on kiddie coasters kind of became a thing on this trip.

Also, here's Alec getting in touch with his inner child!

AUTOSKOOTER ERT!!!

A few of the rides had these really cool, old-fashioned turnstiles.

We had the place to ourselves!

We eventually came back for more Cyclone. Here you can see our plaque from PresCon 2003. It even has the awesome coaster car thingy on it! 

Here's some more old signage in the station. The numbers used to count down each train dispatch!

This sign used to have bulbs that lit up based on where the train was on the track. It'd be neat if they got this thing restored.

Can we stop for a sec and talk about this seatbelt? I had a serious "WTF" moment when I sat down for my first ride.

The beauty of Cyclone's hand-operated breaks is that the ride ops can send the train through the station without stopping it. For every ride during morning ERT, we got TWO non-stop circuits! Probably one of the coolest ERTs ever.

Here you can see a similar breaking system implemented on the Wild Chipmunk.

Michael is all like

"...............wee......"

As a colorblind individual, I appreciated Lakeside's enthusiastic use of bright-ass colors.

Here is a big mama...um...thing...and a cute little baby...thing.

Lakeside provided us a lovely cold-cut sammich buffet for lunch.

There was plenty of food, so they let the ride operators who opened the rides early for us get some lunch. We thought that was really awesome. ATTENTION OTHER PARKS: Do this. Lakeside's employees are amazing, and this kind of treatment by their management is why.

 After lunch we rode the Rock-O-Plane. Some of the ride's cars do not hold their positions when locked & sorta just fall back down. I think it has erectile dysfunction. Get this thing some Viagra.

If your car remains locked for more than 4 hours, seek immediate medical attention. 

So I'm sitting here typing captions for all of these pics, and I'm really ticked that this shot of the Tower of Jewels happens come up right after all that stuff about Viagra.

There doesn't seem to be any erectile dysfunction going on ever here!

.............

....moving right along....

I had to go back and get my ride on the Loop-O-Plane. Loved it. I didn't really have anything to hold on to, so I just put my hands on the ceiling of the car. 

The ride is controlled by what is essentially an arcade joystick. Awesome. 

Michael requested that we ride the Skoot-A-Boats. Probably the nicest bumper boats around. Also probably some of the greenest water around.

Our last ride of the day was the park's flying ships ride. I LOVE these. I wish they were everywhere. 

The boys used their ride time on the Flying Dutchman to muse about life. 

Credit Missed: Lakeside's kiddie coaster has a no adults policy. :{

We decided to drive around the perimeter of Lakeside to get some good shots of the Cyclone. Probably the best decision of the trip.

We ended up in the parking lot of some nondescript building. This is the view.

Looking at the Cyclone from this angle reminded me of ACE's logo.

We drove to a few other spots on a one-way road that sits adjacent to the Cyclone.

This straightaway of the Cyclone is banked to the left for no apparent reason, other than to maybe help you get more acquainted with your riding partner. :}

Yep.

Right beneath the Lakeside sign is a Walmart sign. Even the 8-citizen city of Lakeside has its own Walmart!

It's hard not to shed a tear leaving such a nice park.

Because our events director Paul Blick is awesome, he got us discounted admission to the Denver Aquarium. We decided to check it out because we heard good things from other ACErs who went.

 

The place is RIGHT next to Elitch Gardens.

The aquarium was set up as a series of environments populated with representative wildlife.

Here are some fishies hanging overhead!

OTTERS!!!!! OMG! 

*dies*

I had never seen geode splitting before. I think it's a neat idea. I mean, how often can you buy something that you get to break in half?!

This large community tank had a remote-controlled POV fish camera that you could operate for a nominal fee.

Aww! Look at the happy little snake! :D

Whoa. This snake does not look nearly as happy.

And this snake looks like it just took an Ambien.

This guitar fish was participating in guitar-fish-type-shenanigans.

The gull looked on with impertinence.

And this flamboyant litte thing was found playing by himself in the plants.

Tank-tunnels are always a crowd-pleaser. This one did not disappoint. 

The stingrays are havin' a party and YOU'RE invited!!

Unless you're this shark. This shark was not invited.

Here's a small tank with some floppy sea stars & other things of that nature.

Here we are in the tropical far-east. 

"I have given this creature the body of a turtle and the head of a mole. It shall be called a murtle."

Some of the freshwater fish are just like the ones you can find at PetSmart, except that half of these fish aren't dead. 

The Michael exhibit. 

These jellyfish went to the beach together, but they ALL forgot to bring their bathing suits!  They proceeded to plunge their heads into the sand in embarrassment.

This macaw was REALLY damn happy about something. It would not stop dancing and shouting personal remarks at passers by. 

My favorite tank in the aquarium was their Caribbean coral tank.

You can't go to an aquarium these days without hearing countless people scream out, "Look! It's Dory! Look! It's Nemo!"

These jellyfish remembered their bathing suits. :}

These jellyfish were in some kind of jellyfish prison. Perhaps they forgot their bathing suits but tried to go swimming anyways. 

The last critter at the Denver Aquarium is their Pacific Giant Octopus!

LOOK AT MY SUCKERS.

look. 

The octopus was extremely sociable & really loved the camera.

That's a wrap! Thanks for the great time, Denver!

Ok. So. As of right now, I have 3 days until I leave for Coaster Con. I am going to *try* and post my report of this year's fabulous Beech Bend Bash, and then I'll be all caught up. It's a small report & should be ready here in a couple of days. Stay tuned! :}