Today was really a day of relaxation. Or at least my idea of it. I can see that many people may just sit around, read a book, perhaps watch a movie or something, me, I went to Six Flags: Fiesta Texas, a local theme park.

Overall, I found the park disappointing, but this is from my perspective. If I took a few younger children there it would have been fine, but as I was looking essentially for good rides, there were not that many to choose from.

The park itself is laid out very well and is quite interesting, surrounded on all sides by canyon walls (all man-made, that is, excavated for the park) and a number of different shops and areas to wonder through.

I went on all three roller coasters, one is the largest wooden roller coaster in Texas (which was by far the best), another is one that is very fast based upon the Coyote/Roadrunner chases, and another, “Joker's Revenge” was a roller coaster that went backwards (including loops, etc.). All except the Rattler (the wooden one) were extremely short and even the Rattler had a section right after the first drop that was extremely boring, in that we essentially went around in a big circle about three or four times.

I also went on two water rides, one a traditional log ride, where there were many people standing above where the final (and only) drop occurs waiting to be splashed and the other ride was a rapids ride where there were about nine people in the inner tube going around in a rapid track. It was very hot today and these rides were much appreciated. There were many long waits including time to get into the park itself (since we had to go through metal detectors and since it was Labour Day), we waited about half an hour just to get through the main gate. The rides averaged about 45 minutes for the bigger ones. The “Joker's Revenge” was the shortest line up. No wonder, I did not feel that great after the ride (riding backwards is NOT my idea of fun).

The park is divided into a number of different areas, for example, I had a bratwurst sausage on a bun in the German area of the park (and later listened to the German band who were demonstrating a number of German instruments).

I had to try a turkey leg (smoked, literally) as there were lots of people trying it. It was not too bad, a bit too much meat for me though, I preferred helping myself to many of the ice-drinks since is was VERY hot again today. I did not wear my hat since I was afraid I would loose it on some of the rides, oh well.

I also went to a live action show featuring some superheros, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Green Lattern, and Robin who were fighting the Joker and Lex Luther. It was a great show for kids, the effects were very good but the acting and staging was, shall we say, not exactly broadway, not exactly any other street in New York.

I was going to go to the water park area but there were not many rides actually open, including the largest of the water slides. I figured, since more than half of the rides in that area were not open it was not worth it.

I was a bit tired after that, only after six hours in the park (much of the time in various lines), so I began my trip back to the hotel. I have to get up VERY early tomorrow for my flight so I wanted to be back early anyway.

Before I went back to the hotel though I stopped by a supermarket. I thought it would be a great idea to pick up some authentic Mexican hot sauce and various chillies. So I picked up so Habenero sauce, which is essentially the hottest thing that exists on the planet (estimated to be about 1,000 times hotter than jalapeño sauce). It should be interesting to try it out, and I find it rather amusing. One of my friends in Winnipeg will like it that I also got him some (someone actually dared him to eat a whole Habenero once at work and he did – he also did not talk for too much after that and took a while to recover).

After that was pretty boring, I have packed up my room, which has been my home for about a week now. It will be sad to leave. I am up at about 4 in the morning tomorrow to begin my day of travel. Not exactly fun. I have a box that is essentially gifts and books. A LOT to travel with.