Waterpark Blues

One of the biggest stumbling blocks that we face, when we’re going out to an amusement park, is how to cope with the water park.

Most water parks are not really built to accommodate people with disabilities.  It’s easier with a land-based ride, since there’s usually an exit and an entrance, and most parks seem to use the exit as a ‘fast-pass/disability’ access point.  But a water ride… usually has one way to ride it, and going in the exit doesn’t work. Continue reading

Autism at the Ballpark: Bowie Baysox

And the march from ballpark to ballpark continues.

This weekend is a double-header for us.  We’ve the opportunity to go catch two of the Baltimore Orioles’ farm teams this weekend – the Bowie Baysox (AA, Eastern League) on Friday night and the Aberdeen Ironbirds (Short-Season A, New York-Penn League) this evening.  Both teams are doing their Autism Awareness games this weekend. Continue reading

Autism at the Ballpark: Southern Maryland Blue Crabs

If it’s summer, it must be time to go catch a ballgame.

As I mentioned multiple times last season, I do love baseball.  I grew up mostly listening to baseball on the radio – I still don’t exactly “get into” watching it on television – but there’s still just one real way to experience the game, and that’s at the ballpark. Continue reading

On the Road – Port Discovery

So yesterday, there was a deal with the Smithsonian Museums and their affiliates for free entry.  Never ones to pass up a deal, we signed up to go to Port Discovery, the local children’s museum here in Baltimore.

(Yesterday was a whole bunch of free, since we also had lunch at a nearby, newly-opening Red Robin… but that’s beside the point.  We like Red Robin, if only because bottomless fries == distracted children with full mouths.) Continue reading

Autism at the Ballpark: Frederick Keys

It’s occurred to me that with all of my travel reviews and whatnot, I don’t actually talk about the ballparks we’ve visited this year. (This is the fact that came into my mind while I was sitting at the stadium yesterday, in the drizzle.)  Given that several of these games have been courtesy of either Pathfinders for Autism or our local Autism Society chapter, it seems like a weird omission on my part. Continue reading

On the Road – Busch Gardens Williamsburg

I know I promised this review on Friday – I’ve had a few things to keep me busy offline (least of which is a complicated schedule to squeeze in extra therapy for the Monster on Friday afternoon), and since I don’t generally post on Shabbat…

A week ago today, my family visited Busch Gardens, in Williamsburg, Virginia.  We went primarily to go enjoy the Food and Wine Festival, but admittedly there was a coaster that we’d not yet riden at the park… Continue reading

On the Road – Water Country USA

This past weekend, we managed to hit both SeaWorld Entertainment parks in Williamsburg, Virginia – Water Country, USA and Busch Gardens.  I’m going to cover these separately since a) they’re not attached, and b) we had different experiences at each.

(As I always state with reviews – I was not compensated in any fashion for this review.  We paid for our own admission to the park.) Continue reading

On The Road – Please Touch Museum (Philadelphia, PA)

Since summer is ending for the Monster after this weekend, we decided to take part of the weekend to do a mini-vacation.

Originally, we’d planned on taking the entire weekend to go away, but given how we’ve had issues previously with massive disruptions to his schedule and issues we had with finding a reasonably-priced hotel, we decided to knock it down to a single day trip. Continue reading