Tourist Trap Time
Sep. 8th, 2016 08:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vovatThis past week or so has been fairly eventful, at least relative to the rest of my recent life, so I might as well give an overview. On Wednesday evening, Beth and I went to Rye Playland, and what a wry playland it was!
Admission was half price after 5 PM, but to get there we had to take the Metro North from Grand Central to Rye, then catch a bus at the train station. We were afraid we might have just missed the bus, but actually it was running a bit late. We went there before four years ago, and it hasn't changed much since then. One of the rides I mentioned back then, Ye Olde Mill, was still there, but not running that day. We did go on a few others I can't recall having ridden before, including Sky Skater, the Crazy Mouse, and Starship 2000. The first one was pretty tame but also painful, while the last of those is more commonly known as a Gravitron. I'm always amused when amusement parks and other attractions have knockoffs of licensed characters, and I'm never sure whether they just hope the copyright holders won't notice or they change them just enough to get away with it. One of the dark rides, the Flying Witch, had Ersatz Freddy Krueger outside and Knockoff Pinhead inside.
Ersatz Freddy says, "Welcome to evening television, bint!"
And do you think the Beatles would have something to say about this kiddie ride?
We're floating along in a yellow boat, a yellow boat, a yellow boat...
I mentioned before how there are pictures of Thor on the Thunder Bolt, but it's actually inclusive of different pantheons.
Zeus and Pegasus are also there, as are possibly Apollo and Artemis, even though they don't traditionally use lightning. Why not Raijin or Indra? Did they not have enough commercial appeal?
I already talked about seeing 31 on Thursday, so I guess I'll move on to Friday, when we visited Beth's aunt's house and saw the new puppy. They had just gotten a new Miniature Pinscher named Sadie not long before that, and then they adopted her brother Tiny as well.
The other two dogs there, Ruby and Ricky, belong to Beth's uncle Harry. Ruby was in the same litter as Clancy and Mabel, and her fur was much darker when she was a puppy. Our friend Stephanie was going to Atlantic City on Saturday, and invited several people to go with her, but it ended up just being her, a friend of hers I don't think we'd met before, Beth, and me. This was the day when the wind from Tropical Storm Hermine was affecting the area, and there was also a policeman shot outside Caesar's early that morning. It was pretty uneventful for us, although we noticed that the part of the Boardwalk where the casinos had closed down (the Showboat and Revel are out of business, and I understand the Trump Taj Mahal will be soon as well) was pretty much covered by a miniature sandstorm. I guess there wasn't as much there to block the sand from the beach. We ate brunch at the Continental, a restaurant in the mall that used to be called Ocean One, and I think is now just the Shops at Caesar's. It had a beach theme and bathrooms with plastic curtains instead of doors. Speaking of Atlantic City, I've always been interested in themed attractions and the names they use. I know the casinos aren't going for authenticity, but if the Taj Mahal is supposed to be India-themed, why is the entertainment venue there called Xanadu? That's a European name for Shangdu in China. Caesar's has the Circus Maximus, which is thematically appropriate, but isn't that where gladiators murdered people? It's weird that are generally a fair number of Indian patrons at a casino with a tacky India theme, and also that the guy who wants to ban Muslims from entering the country named his casino after a building commissioned by a shah. I don't believe Donald Trump owns the casino anymore, but it's still appropriate that another business with his name on it is failing.
We returned to Brooklyn on Sunday, and attended Stephanie's party in the evening. This was the same Stephanie we met in Atlantic City, but not the same one who saw 31 with us, although that Stephanie was also at the party. There are several people we really only see when we're invited to a group event and I wish we could see more often. I'm glad Stephanie invites us to stuff. She has a lot of other friends, and is good at making everybody feel included. Wednesday was the last evening that the Brooklyn Botanic Garden was open this year (the garden is still going to be open, but not at night), and our free passes for the year are going to expire soon, so we stopped by for a few hours.
Parts of it were really dark after the sun had gone day, enough so that it was difficult to figure out where to walk. I'm making it sound worse than it was, but I would have thought they would have had more lights. And I suppose that's pretty much it.
Admission was half price after 5 PM, but to get there we had to take the Metro North from Grand Central to Rye, then catch a bus at the train station. We were afraid we might have just missed the bus, but actually it was running a bit late. We went there before four years ago, and it hasn't changed much since then. One of the rides I mentioned back then, Ye Olde Mill, was still there, but not running that day. We did go on a few others I can't recall having ridden before, including Sky Skater, the Crazy Mouse, and Starship 2000. The first one was pretty tame but also painful, while the last of those is more commonly known as a Gravitron. I'm always amused when amusement parks and other attractions have knockoffs of licensed characters, and I'm never sure whether they just hope the copyright holders won't notice or they change them just enough to get away with it. One of the dark rides, the Flying Witch, had Ersatz Freddy Krueger outside and Knockoff Pinhead inside.
Ersatz Freddy says, "Welcome to evening television, bint!"
And do you think the Beatles would have something to say about this kiddie ride?
We're floating along in a yellow boat, a yellow boat, a yellow boat...
I mentioned before how there are pictures of Thor on the Thunder Bolt, but it's actually inclusive of different pantheons.
Zeus and Pegasus are also there, as are possibly Apollo and Artemis, even though they don't traditionally use lightning. Why not Raijin or Indra? Did they not have enough commercial appeal?
I already talked about seeing 31 on Thursday, so I guess I'll move on to Friday, when we visited Beth's aunt's house and saw the new puppy. They had just gotten a new Miniature Pinscher named Sadie not long before that, and then they adopted her brother Tiny as well.
The other two dogs there, Ruby and Ricky, belong to Beth's uncle Harry. Ruby was in the same litter as Clancy and Mabel, and her fur was much darker when she was a puppy. Our friend Stephanie was going to Atlantic City on Saturday, and invited several people to go with her, but it ended up just being her, a friend of hers I don't think we'd met before, Beth, and me. This was the day when the wind from Tropical Storm Hermine was affecting the area, and there was also a policeman shot outside Caesar's early that morning. It was pretty uneventful for us, although we noticed that the part of the Boardwalk where the casinos had closed down (the Showboat and Revel are out of business, and I understand the Trump Taj Mahal will be soon as well) was pretty much covered by a miniature sandstorm. I guess there wasn't as much there to block the sand from the beach. We ate brunch at the Continental, a restaurant in the mall that used to be called Ocean One, and I think is now just the Shops at Caesar's. It had a beach theme and bathrooms with plastic curtains instead of doors. Speaking of Atlantic City, I've always been interested in themed attractions and the names they use. I know the casinos aren't going for authenticity, but if the Taj Mahal is supposed to be India-themed, why is the entertainment venue there called Xanadu? That's a European name for Shangdu in China. Caesar's has the Circus Maximus, which is thematically appropriate, but isn't that where gladiators murdered people? It's weird that are generally a fair number of Indian patrons at a casino with a tacky India theme, and also that the guy who wants to ban Muslims from entering the country named his casino after a building commissioned by a shah. I don't believe Donald Trump owns the casino anymore, but it's still appropriate that another business with his name on it is failing.
We returned to Brooklyn on Sunday, and attended Stephanie's party in the evening. This was the same Stephanie we met in Atlantic City, but not the same one who saw 31 with us, although that Stephanie was also at the party. There are several people we really only see when we're invited to a group event and I wish we could see more often. I'm glad Stephanie invites us to stuff. She has a lot of other friends, and is good at making everybody feel included. Wednesday was the last evening that the Brooklyn Botanic Garden was open this year (the garden is still going to be open, but not at night), and our free passes for the year are going to expire soon, so we stopped by for a few hours.
Parts of it were really dark after the sun had gone day, enough so that it was difficult to figure out where to walk. I'm making it sound worse than it was, but I would have thought they would have had more lights. And I suppose that's pretty much it.
