We planned to go to the Storm game tonight. However, leaving our house at 6:15 only to find the 520 bridge closed diminished our chances of getting tickets to the sold-out game. One minor altercation with a (greedy, obnoxious) scalper pretty much eliminated all hope.

So, there we were in the Seattle Center. What to do?? Two words: Roller Coaster. Unfortunately, Kenzie is only 46 inches tall and needed to be 54 to ride it. She was up for it, though (as was I). But, there was no way she was going to grow 8 inches in one evening. As we pondered, Cindy was anxious to get us into the kid area, Land of the Lame, but Kenzie and I weren't quite ready. (Mason also wanted to ride the Big Kid rides, but even I knew it was a little premature for that.)

Most of the rest of the Big Kid rides required at least 48 inches. Which, Kenzie quickly learned was the same as 46" plus a little heel lift right in front of the sign. (What? Her uncles have been doing this trick for years right before the camera takes our family shots so they look 6'3".) It worked! Our first ride was the Pirate Ship. As we began our swing, she was giggling. Then, it got higher, higher, and really high. I looked at her and she was white as a ghost. I said, "Kenzie?" No response. "Kenzie, are you okay?" No response. "Kenzie!?!? Say something!" Her face was completely frozen. I seriously worried if she had gone into some shock-induced coma. Finally she said, "Mom, just tell me, are they going to drop us?" I told her "no, honey, we're fine. This is supposed to be fun." She relaxed, said, "oh, okay!" and then started to enjoy herself. We were screaming like mad, and then she really started having fun. By the time it was over she wanted to go again. She challenged the 54" rule on the roller coaster, but we didn't push our luck there.

We did go on the water roller coaster. She liked it, perhaps a bit too much. I think she would have stayed on that one all day. It was weird that they made me sit in front of her and we weren't strapped in. But there was a bar and strict instructions to "hold on."

When Cindy and Mason were done watching us, we all went to the kid area. There was a kid-sized roller coaster that we all went on, the Farris wheel, and...bumper cars! Mason cracked up every time one car hit another. His foot stayed on the pedal and he steered like a madman.

Kenzie then took her little brother on the kid-sized pirate swing, teaching him the ropes and showing off the "no hands" maneuver.


Finally, we walked to the base of the Space Needle and looked up at the elevator. Kenzie kept repeating, much to Cindy's chagrin, "this is so much better than basketball!" We talked about how much fun we can have when our best-laid plans fall through. Well, some of us talked.