Monday, June 02, 2008

Fun Center

Funtastic runs a pretty tight ship, come through quite often, this one off to Marysville next. In the tradition of "extreme" in amusement parks' evolution, we have two high tech gizmos by the Hawthorne bridge these days, right next to the pirate ships, "rides on steroids" by yesteryear's standards.

Last night was just perfect, in terms of no throngs. Whereas other days on the waterfront we've been mostly Latino, last night we were pretty Russian, especially on the two extremes.

Tara & Rose had decided on the sling shot, a reverse bungie jump in some ways, a carriage sent soaring some hundreds of feet vertically. They also road the more traditional swings, a favorite of Dawn's as well.

I gladly paid for the DVD version of the event, a wireless cam watching the "astronauts." People debating whether to try it get to watch the monitors for awhile, trying to gauge their own level of discomfort against the obvious thrill value. A little peer pressure helps in a pinch.

We missed a Central Friends event as a result of all this (Quaker youth in training), but I figure this counts on some level. No one said practicing nonviolence couldn't be thrilling.