Enchanted Kingdom

I am sorry for the large number of photos that go along with this post. I couldn't decide which ones to use and since I am trying to use my blog as a type of journal, you will just have to suffer through the numerous pictures. Last weekend we went to an Amusement Park called, "Enchanted Kingdom". It is fairly small and a little bit of a wanna be Disneyland but we had a great time. We actually chose a not -so-hot-day. There was a nice cool breeze which was greatly appreciated by both Kessee and I. The park is about an hour and a half from our house. If there was no traffic it would be much less, but why complain...there is no changing that. I think it is safe to say that we have a major drama queen on our hands. Here are a couple of pictures of the "queen" herself on the way in the car.


These next few are shots I caught from the car window as we were driving. They aren't very clear but they give you a good idea of the amount of poverty that is in the Philippines. The water is called the "dead river". They call it that because it has been so badly polluted that nothing will survive in it.


This is a picture of our Driver's family. We brought them along with us. His kids Cedric, and Ivan had never been on rides before. Right to left...Cedric, Jo, Ivan, Jane.
Gabby loves hanging on anything and everything...including me.
Me and Jax right before he braved one of the roller coasters. He rode all the adult rides. What a "big boy".
Me and Gabby on the Hot Air Balloons. "Up Up and Away".
Jax on a roller coaster.
Gabby loved this dinosaur. We had to follow it all around the park and when it left she fell apart. DRAMA, DRAMA, DRAMA!!!
Gabby on the airplanes. She loved them.
Jax posing while we waited in the longest line EVER! And then the picture of the longest line ever...
Kessee here, I had to chime in on this post. I have to set the premise to do the picture below justice. Those from Utah / Idaho will appreciate this more, but take the theme park of 'Lagoon' and shrink it to about three fourths of it's size. Now take a population double of what visits Disneyland and cram it into the park. Now look at the picture below. This looks like a crowd, the life I lost waiting wishes it were just a 'crowd'. No. No, no. This is the QUE line to get to the que line to get to the REAL que line to get on the RIDE! You can't tell, but it zigzags about 6 times in on itself and stretched for about a quartermile each way...ok, about a football field...length but seriously! At the time of the picture we were in the 'belly' of the zigzag and there are lines of people behind us as well as to the right and left... all for a 4 minute ride...

Zonked after a long day of sun and rides.
Jax and Gabby on the iceream/teacups type ride.
Just as we were leaving they set off fireworks. We watched them from the parking lot.
After we left the park we were all pretty hungry. It's funny how in the U.S. you would never want to eat at Mcdonalds, but here we are glad for it. Too much of the food is scary and Mcdonalds is at least a piece of home and you know what to expect. Gabby loved Ivan (the older boy of our driver). She kept calling him, "my my my Iban".
All in all we had a really fun day and we look forward to going back. It is a lot of fun and really reasonably priced. Tickets are less than $10. That is something we would never find at home. So basically all I have to say is that there are some positives to living in the Philippines. My grocery bill might be outrageous, but at least the entertainment isn't. Sometimes living here can be discouraging and really hard, but I think I will start to try and look on the bright side. It can't hurt, right?