LAKESIDE AMUSEMENT PARK

you bet your bottom dollar we’re going to lakeside amusement park again this weekend (the last weekend of the season!) to ride some more kiddie rides. we took ramona there last weekend with our dear friends, lashley and koan. whenever we drive by another amusement park in town right off the highway, ramona screams “rollercoaster!!” and every time i ask her if she wants to ride one and she says “yes!” so we thought we’d test it out at the kiddie land at lakeside, a denver institution. i had no idea how she would respond when we put her on the first ride. she’s brave, but she’s also two. so we started with the jolly choo-choo (which she, of course, kept calling thomas). parents aren’t allowed on the rides with the little ones so i just prayed she wouldn’t try and jump out while it was moving. it started and this girl could only smile. we started cheering her on with “hands up!” and the girl just gobbled it up and the kids around her followed suit. soon enough, you had a line of little kids with their hands up on a kiddie choo choo ride that is going faster than any kiddie ride i’d seen before (they sure don’t make ’em like they used to).

then it was on to the airplanes. then the horses. then the go-carts. that’s the first photo: ramona whipping around the corners alternating between holding on for dear life and letting it loose with her hands up. i could not stop laughing every time i watched her. i was so proud and so surprised and so happy for her delight. the girl loves excitement! every ride we walked by, big or small, she’d point to and say very matter-of-factly “ride next.” needless to say, she was devastated when we were told at the ferris wheel that she was just a couple inches too short to ride it. next summer, my little daredevil.

this would also make a great date night: it’s perfect for people watching (what amusement park isn’t), it has charm and cheekiness and is quaint and you feel like you’ve stepped back into time. it was built in 1908 and updated in the 30s. i can’t say it seems like much has been updated since.

lakeside is affordable. $2.50 per person over two. and 50 cents of that goes toward ride tickets (which on the weekend we went were only ten cents each! usually they are 50 cents). each ride costs 1-6 tickets. kids rides are all 1 ticket. certainly worth a trip to see if your kid is ready for some amusement park action! we spent $15 for four people. bringing your own food is advised as the options are underwhelming.

has your child ridden rides yet? how’d they do?