3 Ginger Snaps

As of the end of today this is a picture of my wrist:I have collected these bracelets since the start of the trip and they all have meaning.The string bracelets were from monks in temples in Cambodia and Thailand. The plastic wristband is from Universal Studios Singapore. One of these things is not like the other…

I would like to believe that deep in the fibre of my soul I am not the kind of guy who would enjoy amusement parks. I am greener. I don’t go in for conspicuous consumption. I am not a fan of standing in line. I really do not enjoy over spending on food and souvenirs. But I really like amusement parks. Amusement parks were not really a thing for me growing up. There was the occasional visit to Canada’s Wonderland and Ontario Place but I can’t say that I recall enjoying these experiences in a particularly special way. It isn’t that these experiences were disparaged by my parents, amusement parks just weren’t the type of thing we did as a family. We did lots of other stuff.

In 2014 the Smith-Gulyas family went to Disneyland. I was incredibly sceptical about the experience and for some reason or other, perhaps because it is just so well done, I found myself enjoying it a great deal within the few hours of arrival. Universal Studios Singapore had much the same effect. 

From the anticipation that built up starting last night at dinner to the monorail ride that connected the Harborfront MRT station to the out of this world Sentosa Island to the first hit of Coca-Cola on a very hot day to the loud music to the costume characters to the “anything goes” atmosphere of the place to the people watching to the looks on my kids faces when they are discovering they like roller coasters to the wretched feeling in my belly when I have discovered that I have had enough roller coasters for one day and need to be stationary for a while to the kid who falls asleep in the cab on the way home… I am 100% into amusement parks. (At least once every 3 to 5 years…)

To say that the five of us are completely overstimulated at the end of today is a gross understatement. We all need a few hours of quiet in a dark room so that our brains can shut down. And no doubt we will have amusement park hangovers in the morning… but today was the kind of day that memories are made out of. And the five of us spent the whole day together. And I imagine that we will treasure these memories for years to come.

Here is our day in chronological photo sequence:

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