Not just for 30 year olds anymore

On Saturday we helped a friend celebrate his 31st birthday by riding roller coasters and a variety of other spinning, flipping and gyrating rides that are not recommended if you drank more than two glasses of red wine the night before.

In sharp contrast to the two-bit carnival we went to for my birthday this past year, with its rickety single roller coaster held together with bandaids and old chewing gum, this was the real deal: Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, about an hour from San Francisco. Saturday was Opening Day.

We had been expecting a chilly, rainy day and so were pleasantly surprised when it was merely a chilly, excessively windy day. There was almost no one but us there so we could go on the rides again and again and, well, usually two times was enough. My favorite coasters were Medusa, a long one with lots of twists and upside down parts that I would recommend riding in the front row, and Boomerang, which we are pretty sure is named after the Eddie Murphy movie of the same name but I will leave it to you to figure out how.

During one of the beer breaks, we noticed an older couple sitting nearby enjoying a beer and an overpriced corn dog. They appeared to be there by themselves; either that or there were completely unconcered that the small children they were supposedly chaperoning were well out of sight. I prefer to think that they were there just the two of them enjoying a day of roller coasters and shitty food. (Note to self: getting older doesn't have to mean you get unattractive and boring; you can avoid getting boring.)