So, when we go to Disney, we always try to something in the weeks leading up to it to get us ready for all the walking we'll be doing in Disney. So, my brother and I went to a place in southern Indiana called "
Holiday World".
Holiday World is in Santa Claus, Indiana... Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus, Indiana. And they take "Santa Claus" very seriously... there are pictures, statues and people dressed as Santa everywhere in the city.
We had dinner at Subway before we left.... who do you think we saw?
I had gotten free tickets from my work, so my brother and I went before he started at his new college. (he already graduated with his associates, but decided to go back for his bachelors and transferred to another school.)
As an idea of how long it takes- from my house on the south side of Indianapolis, to Louisville it takes right at 2 hours. To get to Santa Claus, it's 3 1/2 hours. Holiday World is actually 2 parks in one... a water park, which has now gotten bigger than the actual amusement park. There are several water slides and a "water coaster".
However, we stayed in the amusement park. We got there around 1 p.m. There was no wait for anything basically. The longest wait we had was 15 minutes for the last wooden roller coaster we went on... The Legend.
It's the longest and tallest wooden roller coaster there.

Taken from their website: "The Voyage is an air-time machine, with riders experiencing a feeling of weightlessness for a total of 24.3 seconds," says Holiday World's president, Matt Eckert. "We take the traditional out-and-back layout to the extreme, with one of the steepest drops on any wooden coaster in the world. The Voyage is 1.2 miles long, placing it among the planet's top three longest and fastest wooden coasters." The Voyage also has three sections of extreme, 90-degree banking." "Most dramatic drops on The Voyage measure 154 feet (66-degree angle of descent), 107 feet (51-degree angle), and 100 feet (50.5-degree angle)."
Let me tell you- on a regular roller coaster this would probably be awesome. But this is wooden, so you get shaken up like dice in a cup. My right shoulder and neck still hurt from this ride and we went on it a week and a half ago!
We rode all three of the roller coasters twice and did ever "big" ride in the park... so no little kid rides. With the exception of the carousel.
Like Disney they have "mascots" and their biggest mascot... behind Santa obviously, is Holidog. He was out roaming the park on our way out so we got our picture taken with him... and two other mascots... Hallokitty (I think) and some Eagle.. no idea who he was. This is my brother Nick & I (Goose) with Holidog.

(For those of you paying attention, yes I am wearing the exact same outfit in this picture as I am in the intro! Only difference is the purse... and my hair has grown about 6 inches since our 2010 trip.)
Something about Holiday World... because it's built in southern Indiana... it's built on the side of a hill. From about Bloomington South, Indiana is all hills. My home town, on the far west side of the state, Terre Haute, is French for high ground... because that's basically where all the hills start. I'd say half of Indiana is completely flat (which makes it good for farming) but the further south you go, the more hills you get. So Holiday World is QUITE a work out for your knees! Nothing like the flat parks at Disney. I wore a pedometer through the park and when we left it said I'd done just about 3 miles. And that's the entire park-- and backtracking to get back to the roller coasters we had already done.
Sorry I don't have more pictures... I can't get my cell phone to connect to the internet to get the pictures off of it. Thanks for reading along! See ya real soon!
