Got to Be NC Festival

Today I found out that, since M is now just a hair taller than 42 inches, our trips to all sorts of carnival and fairs are going to get a lot more expensive. Well, you see, most fair rides require riders to be at least 42 inches tall to go on rides alone (without adults).

 Of course, it also means I won't have to go on those whirling, tilting, spinning, swooshing through the air rides unless I want to (fat chance). So it's a good news/bad news kind of thing.

Sure, I tried not spending any money at all on the rides. I told M that we can look at anything and do anything at the Got to Be NC Festival as long as it was free of charge. But you know, there just ain't much free stuff these days. Fortunately, there was this awesome setup for a supersized water balloon toss. Can you believe it was free?! And you could shoot big balloons filled with cold water out of this oversized slingshot and try to hit your opponents as many times as you wanted. Major fun and I couldn't believe it was FREE!

But after we were done with that, the only other free thing we found was the fountain. But you know, keeping in mind that it only runs during special events (3-4 weekends a year), it was a terrific free opportunity.

Sure, the little petting zoo with goats and sheep and llama was free. But you had to pay $2 for a small cup of oats to feed to the animals. Of course, buying it was not necessary unless you wanted to take some cute pictures and enjoy listening to your child describing how a goat's tongue feels and how llama is so sneaky (because, with its long neck, it tries to snatch the cup out of your hands and eat it all!)

And then we ended up walking by the midway with all the rides... What made matters even more difficult for me was that M stuck to the rule and didn't even ask to go on a ride, not even once. Nor did he ask for any treats or to try to win prizes. So that's what ultimately got me. Turns out, we had to buy tickets for the rides, each ticket costing $1. But even the cheapest rides required 3 tickets and most rides were 4 or 5 tickets.

Luckily, there was a Friday Special deal where you could buy a wristband for $20 and have unlimited rides. And that's exactly what I did. It proved to be a good choice since M ended up going on all but 2 kiddie rides (one was closed for maintenance and the other one was for very-very young kids).

And he also went on 3 big rides - a chair swing ride, the Wipeout, and some sort of a twisting twirling ride I don't know the name of.

Ok, so he had to be pulled off that ride (actually, he motioned for the ride attendant to stop) because he got "a little bit scared,  Mama". But that didn't stop him from going on a swing ride and a few other nausea-inducing rides (like the Barrels of Fun one above) not once, but twice and even three times.

I wish I could go on those rides with him, but just looking at them makes me sick. So we're going to wait for Chris to come back and then M will get to go on really big rides, oh, and on bumper cars too.

Although I kinda wish I did go on this slide with him! Note to self - take more than $3 in cash to a festival next time around.