Ja regresamos!

That's right! We've returned from Sesame Place in Langhorne, PA. What a place! Here's a crew of smart marketers. I don't know if the Children's Television Workshop (creator of Sesame Street) owns the park or simply collects royalties, but this place is a gold mine!

Sesame Place is a 2.5 hour drive from our home. I made it in just over two, having a led foot and all. We arrived an amusement park that was packed to the last sqare inch! Who would have thought that a weekday in August would be so busy? This looked like a Saturday crowd.

Now, here's where the gold-digging comes in. The three of us paid $35 per ticket. That's with a discount of $6 off per ticket courtesy of another customer! If the ususal rate is $41 for children 2 and over through adults, and the park is this crowded...can you hear the ka!-ching!?

I've got to find out if this park's gone public!

In all seriousness, the money was well spent. We took Frankie to see two shows that featured all his favorites from Sesame Street. At the first show, we sat on aluminum bleachers around a tented stage and watched Big Bird, Elmo, Tele-monster, Zoe, Bert and Ernie sing and dance. Frankie stood and danced in the aisle most of the show. During the second show, we sat on similar bleachers, but their was carpeting on the floor. There was also a genuine roof overhead, which meant (za-dada-daaah!) air conditioning. After spending almost a half-hour in the sun on line for one ride, AC was most welcome! We settled back and watched a full-sized Elmo perform his famoust Elmo's World show live. What a riot!

Elmo danced down the center aisle of the theater. We two places from the center; Frankie laughed and jumped up and down as the monster walked past. Elmo sang, danced, pulled cakes and other strange assortments out of his drawyer. He laughed with his friend, Mr. Noodle. He taught the theater the holke-polke. What had he been thinking about? (za-dada-daaah!) Dancing!

Frankie loved it. He stood up the entire show, even sneaking into the row in front of us. What a joy it is to see my son so happy! How wonderful that a free show based on Sesame Street can so please a two-year-old.

The park also had an assortment of rides, dry and wet. We took him to at least three of the water rides. One involved him sitting in an inner tube and holding the handles as he rode down a flume of running water in a circular chute to a resting pool. My heart sat in my throat his entire ride! The other two rides were wading pools where he was only waist deep at most. The fountains and running water spouts made them exciting. Not to mention less heart-wrenching for me.

As for dry rides: his favorite was the padded mountain. Picture a square about a quarter of a football field in area. Now, in your mind, lay padding like the kind you'd expect a nursery school or kindergarten gym to have. Then raise the center of this padding up into a huge pyramid at least twenty feet high, with rope lacing up each edge. This is the padded mountain. Frankie climbed to the top of this mountain--and then slid down. Many times. Each time, he wore the largest smile on his face! What a moment!

We had a wonderful time with him there. There's even more to see and do. I didn't even mention the characters on parade. Plus, there's even more water rides we didn't experience. We will be back. I highly reccomend it for any young families within driving distance of Langhorne, PA. Try it--you'll like it!