- October 3rd, 2008, 12:18 am
#25605
Below are just some of the photos from this trip. See all of them with high-res versions HERE at Flickr.
This past weekend I drove northeast to visit some friends in DC and then finally get to ride El Toro at Great Adventure. For this post, we start Saturday at lunchtime at the famous Ben's Chili Bowl in Washington.
A Half-Smoke. Messy, unhealthy, delicious.
There wasn't a lot of time for sightseeing, but we did stop by the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, which is still one of my favorites.
Your tax dollars at work.
Over at the Capitol, it's finally stopped raining. The weather this weekend was actually much better than expected.
Sometimes you are just in the right place at the right time when it comes to taking photos. This is a prime example. One of my favorite pictures that I have ever taken.
The Mall was taken over on this day by the 2008 National Book Festival, which was contained inside tents thanks to the weather.
Next to the Capitol is the National Arboretum, which we took a few minutes to walk through.
The Washington Metro system is one of the nicest in the country, and an easy way to get around the city.
The last sightseeing stop, and an obligatory one. I've been to DC a few times before, but I'm fairly sure this was the first time I actually went to the White House.
On to the real important stuff.
This place had awesome Spanish, Mexican, Cuban, and South American food.
The night in DC was finished off at a couple of bars, the last of which served Delirium Tremens on tap.
I was up very early the next morning and on my way to New Jersey. I essentially drove blind as my new GPS failed miserably, telling me to drive about 6 hours out of my way for no reason. The weather report said it would rain the entire day. It rained for most of my drive up. But, once I got to the park, the rain stopped for the entire day.
Here is why I came to the park. As you can see, the lines were absolutely massive today. Unfortunately, with the low crowds, the park was running 1 train on every coaster except Dark Knight, Kingda Ka, and Skull Mountain.
So, El Toro... Did it live up to the hype?
Yes. It most definitely did. Voyage is still hands down the best roller coaster I have ever been on. But this is hands down the second best, and both are so good that the difference doesn't even really matter.
I wasn't counting on being able to ride Kingda Ka, but it did indeed open.
Kingda Ka was a walk-on with two trains running. I rode twice, including a front seat ride.
I kind of expected to hate it, but the much talked about rattle was not there. It was very smooth, and I really loved it. Not to mention that I was actually legitimitely nervous before the launch.
Hooray for caged tigers.
The first drop on this ride is ridiculous. It's sick. Just plain wrong.
For most of the hills, you can hear the train riding on its upstop wheels over the entire crest. Nothing has airtime like this.
Right next door is a wooden coaster of a far lower caliber. Only the right side was running, which was the same side that I rode before. At the time I couldn't remember which side I had been on, so I had no choice but to ride it again. Yawn.
Nope, still haven't left this area yet. It's just too difficult.
To think people actually complained when the previous coaster behind this flower was removed.
Probably the best thing Six Flags has ever done.
Okay, time to acknowledge that there are in fact other rides in this park. Quite a lot of them in fact.
Dark Knight is the new ride at Great Adventure, and the trendiest ride to hate on from what I can tell.
If I had actually had to wait in line to ride this, maybe I would have been disappointed, but as it is, I liked it. The preshow is one of the best I have seen, and the coaster itself runs very fast. The theming on the ride is certainly lacking, though.
I'm not sure why Skull Mountain was running 2 trains while El Toro, Nitro, Medusa, and others were all running 1. Still a fun ride with a surprising first drop.
Nitro didn't have much of a line, but still longer than it should have been.
This is why.
I deeply regret not taking a picture of this, but after I got my second ride on Nitro, the ride was shut down. This was due to a man, who I can only assumed lost his hat, and decided to retrieve it. He climbed a lockout fence, walked through the empty trough of the river rapids ride, climbed through that entire ride to the bank on the other side, and then moved into the area underneath Nitro. How stupid can people possibly be? Especially now, with two people at Six Flags parks being killed because of doing virtually this exact thing.
For the first time during the weekend, clear skies were spotted.
I rode most of the big rides, but since I have been to the park before, the main goal was to just keep riding El Toro.
Medusa was the last of the other rides that I wanted to hit.
Still an excellent coaster.
The original floorless might in fact still be the best.
This is not a picture of the seventh drop on this ride, but I have to mention it, because my god... It is one of the most ridiculous moments ever on a ride. The ejector airtime begins while the car is still traveling up the hill.
The sun! A very rare spotting.
Here was a disappointment. I read something a long time ago about Houdini's Great Escape being shut down due to a fire code violation or something. I guess I had assumed that it would be back open by now, but there wasn't even a sign at the entrance.
Oh well. Back to El Toro for a final ride.
It's hard to judge Six Flags Great Adventure based on a day like this. It is a nice park with a fantastic collection of coasters, but seems to be perpetually overcrowded with bad operations. On the rare day like this one where the crowds are very low, it is one of the best parks out there. On most other days, from what I understand, you might need to go ahead and prepare to drop 80 bucks on a Flash Pass Gold. With El Toro in the park, that may very well be worth it...
Since I had to spend the night in New Jersey, I decided to at least try to have some fun. My hotel for the night was the Sheraton in Atlantic City.
The view from my hotel, facing away from the strip towards the convention center and a few of the off-strip casinos.
There was a good brewpub for dinner attached to the Sheraton.
I made the long walk down to the boardwalk to find Steel Pier closed. Not much of a surprise given the weather.
Here's the obligatory casino photo, and from here I put the camera away for the rest of the night. Sorry
A quick pass by Philadelphia on the way home, with my GPS again going absolutely haywire, trying to route me 8 hours past New York City and the top of Pennsylvania before coming back south again rather than taking the 90 minute highway directly linking Atlantic City and Philadelphia. So, once again, I turned off the machine and winged it.
I made it home with a fairly relaxed Monday drive, stopping in Baltimore for lunch at this amazing Greek restaurant. Just the kind of weekend I love. A good city, good food, good drinks, and of course a good roller coaster.
This past weekend I drove northeast to visit some friends in DC and then finally get to ride El Toro at Great Adventure. For this post, we start Saturday at lunchtime at the famous Ben's Chili Bowl in Washington.
A Half-Smoke. Messy, unhealthy, delicious.
There wasn't a lot of time for sightseeing, but we did stop by the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, which is still one of my favorites.
Your tax dollars at work.
Over at the Capitol, it's finally stopped raining. The weather this weekend was actually much better than expected.
Sometimes you are just in the right place at the right time when it comes to taking photos. This is a prime example. One of my favorite pictures that I have ever taken.
The Mall was taken over on this day by the 2008 National Book Festival, which was contained inside tents thanks to the weather.
Next to the Capitol is the National Arboretum, which we took a few minutes to walk through.
The Washington Metro system is one of the nicest in the country, and an easy way to get around the city.
The last sightseeing stop, and an obligatory one. I've been to DC a few times before, but I'm fairly sure this was the first time I actually went to the White House.
On to the real important stuff.
This place had awesome Spanish, Mexican, Cuban, and South American food.
The night in DC was finished off at a couple of bars, the last of which served Delirium Tremens on tap.
I was up very early the next morning and on my way to New Jersey. I essentially drove blind as my new GPS failed miserably, telling me to drive about 6 hours out of my way for no reason. The weather report said it would rain the entire day. It rained for most of my drive up. But, once I got to the park, the rain stopped for the entire day.
Here is why I came to the park. As you can see, the lines were absolutely massive today. Unfortunately, with the low crowds, the park was running 1 train on every coaster except Dark Knight, Kingda Ka, and Skull Mountain.
So, El Toro... Did it live up to the hype?
Yes. It most definitely did. Voyage is still hands down the best roller coaster I have ever been on. But this is hands down the second best, and both are so good that the difference doesn't even really matter.
I wasn't counting on being able to ride Kingda Ka, but it did indeed open.
Kingda Ka was a walk-on with two trains running. I rode twice, including a front seat ride.
I kind of expected to hate it, but the much talked about rattle was not there. It was very smooth, and I really loved it. Not to mention that I was actually legitimitely nervous before the launch.
Hooray for caged tigers.
The first drop on this ride is ridiculous. It's sick. Just plain wrong.
For most of the hills, you can hear the train riding on its upstop wheels over the entire crest. Nothing has airtime like this.
Right next door is a wooden coaster of a far lower caliber. Only the right side was running, which was the same side that I rode before. At the time I couldn't remember which side I had been on, so I had no choice but to ride it again. Yawn.
Nope, still haven't left this area yet. It's just too difficult.
To think people actually complained when the previous coaster behind this flower was removed.
Probably the best thing Six Flags has ever done.
Okay, time to acknowledge that there are in fact other rides in this park. Quite a lot of them in fact.
Dark Knight is the new ride at Great Adventure, and the trendiest ride to hate on from what I can tell.
If I had actually had to wait in line to ride this, maybe I would have been disappointed, but as it is, I liked it. The preshow is one of the best I have seen, and the coaster itself runs very fast. The theming on the ride is certainly lacking, though.
I'm not sure why Skull Mountain was running 2 trains while El Toro, Nitro, Medusa, and others were all running 1. Still a fun ride with a surprising first drop.
Nitro didn't have much of a line, but still longer than it should have been.
This is why.
I deeply regret not taking a picture of this, but after I got my second ride on Nitro, the ride was shut down. This was due to a man, who I can only assumed lost his hat, and decided to retrieve it. He climbed a lockout fence, walked through the empty trough of the river rapids ride, climbed through that entire ride to the bank on the other side, and then moved into the area underneath Nitro. How stupid can people possibly be? Especially now, with two people at Six Flags parks being killed because of doing virtually this exact thing.
For the first time during the weekend, clear skies were spotted.
I rode most of the big rides, but since I have been to the park before, the main goal was to just keep riding El Toro.
Medusa was the last of the other rides that I wanted to hit.
Still an excellent coaster.
The original floorless might in fact still be the best.
This is not a picture of the seventh drop on this ride, but I have to mention it, because my god... It is one of the most ridiculous moments ever on a ride. The ejector airtime begins while the car is still traveling up the hill.
The sun! A very rare spotting.
Here was a disappointment. I read something a long time ago about Houdini's Great Escape being shut down due to a fire code violation or something. I guess I had assumed that it would be back open by now, but there wasn't even a sign at the entrance.
Oh well. Back to El Toro for a final ride.
It's hard to judge Six Flags Great Adventure based on a day like this. It is a nice park with a fantastic collection of coasters, but seems to be perpetually overcrowded with bad operations. On the rare day like this one where the crowds are very low, it is one of the best parks out there. On most other days, from what I understand, you might need to go ahead and prepare to drop 80 bucks on a Flash Pass Gold. With El Toro in the park, that may very well be worth it...
Since I had to spend the night in New Jersey, I decided to at least try to have some fun. My hotel for the night was the Sheraton in Atlantic City.
The view from my hotel, facing away from the strip towards the convention center and a few of the off-strip casinos.
There was a good brewpub for dinner attached to the Sheraton.
I made the long walk down to the boardwalk to find Steel Pier closed. Not much of a surprise given the weather.
Here's the obligatory casino photo, and from here I put the camera away for the rest of the night. Sorry
A quick pass by Philadelphia on the way home, with my GPS again going absolutely haywire, trying to route me 8 hours past New York City and the top of Pennsylvania before coming back south again rather than taking the 90 minute highway directly linking Atlantic City and Philadelphia. So, once again, I turned off the machine and winged it.
I made it home with a fairly relaxed Monday drive, stopping in Baltimore for lunch at this amazing Greek restaurant. Just the kind of weekend I love. A good city, good food, good drinks, and of course a good roller coaster.
It's my favorite coaster in the park, surpassing Nitro when the bull opened in '06. I miss those coasters! 
