"Chimica"

This word is music to our ears. It is Liam's made-up word for part of the Sesame Street song:
"Sunny days, chimica, oh sho' way..."

On August 12th and 13th, we drove to Sesame Place (located in Langhorne, PA). We wanted to surprise Liam, but it was impossible with all of his incessant inquiries as to where we were driving. "Church? Gym? Ocean (the beach)? Co' Moe (uncle Moe's)? Welita's house?" So, we finally told him we were going to Sesame Street. His reaction was not quite what we expected. He thought we were going to watch it on TV somewhere and he was not too pleased with the idea. He said, "No, go Welita's house" or in other words, he would much rather visit Abuelita. We laughed and assured him that we were actually going to visit Elmo, Big Bird and everybody. So, on the drive over, he kept asking us, what seemed like every five minutes, "go Sesame Street now?"

We resisted the urge to immediately drive right up to the theme park that looked SO inviting from the main road and instead drove directly to the hotel* and left our car parked there. There was a shuttle bus that took us for free right up to the theme park's entrance, so we didn't have to pay for parking at Sesame Place.

We finally got to Sesame Place with our previously purchased "Elmo Any Two-day Pass" and dinner tickets (for day one) in the hopes of spending two fun-filled "sunny days" days at this theme park. The weather prediction called for about 50% chance of showers. Well, we ended up having one and a half days of heavy downpours and drizzly rain. I know, bummer. (We did have a couple of hours of sun before the park closed on our second day there, and it made the whole place look SO wonderful, of course.) Liam on the other hand, did not seem the least bit bothered by the rain. The umbrellas and rain ponchos were nothing but a nuisance to him. You should have seen his face lit up with excitement as he saw, one by one throughout both days, all the life-sized characters he loves and knows so well.

We got to see the Elmo show complete with his goldfish friend named Dorothy and Mr. Noodle's nephew also called Mr. Noodle, in a set very much like the one we see everyday on the TV show.


We decided to do the dinner with Big Bird and friends. We pretty much knew that the meal itself would not be worth the money, but at least we had air conditioning and shelter from the drizzly rain.

The best part of that meal was the characters that approached each table for some one-on-one time with the children. They would also individually break out into song every so often during mealtime.

The highlight was really when Elmo sang and danced. He had everyone join him in a conga line. When that ended, there was no stopping Liam as he immediately took off running, as most children did, to dance with Elmo. We will never forget his little happy face and his non-stop laughter as he danced and reached over to touch him. He just kept yelling out, "awesome!" (--A word that he has picked up from the Church nursery leaders that are obviously from Utah. More recently, he has been coming home from Church on Sundays saying "time out!" Hmm...I wonder why?!)

Though my husband would vehemently deny it, he enjoyed the music from Abby Cadabby's show. (Check out the expression on the dude sitting next to my husband. He is either really into it or he's gob smacked that he had to sit through it.)

I rather enjoyed the Rock Around the Block Parade, or as my husband called it, "the rain parade". It was complete with floats and all the characters dancing around to the load music blaring from a spectacular sound system that could probably be heard well outside of the theme park itself. I thought it was cool how all the characters would go right up to the people sitting on the curb to shake hands or "high five" them.

There are "wet" and "dry" rides for practically all age groups. Though he enjoyed the few he was actually allowed to go on because of height and age restrictions, his hands down favorite one was the carousel. (So much so that just a few nights ago, he almost scared us half to death when he called out in his sleep, “Up, down, up, down”.) A full hour and a half later, Liam had to be removed from this ride kicking and screaming. (Honey, you’re the best! What a champ!)

Another one of Liam’s favorites was this old fire engine truck that was half sticking out of one of the buildings on Sesame Street, itself. How funny are the things that really interest a two-year old. Same here, Liam had to be removed kicking and screaming.

As far as the "wet" rides, I would have to say that the Count's Splash Castle is truly the crowd pleaser. It is huge, ornately decorated and full of stuff to do on there. You could easily spend a couple of hours on just this one attraction alone. At the top, there is an 8-foot bucket that tips over splashing everyone below with 1,000 gallons of water. Cool!

It was amazing to see in myself the urge to groove to all the silly music around me at Sesame Place. It is inexplicable, really. Maybe it's because I was a huge fan of the show when I was my son's age. If I were to play this music for my boy at home, I could probably only withstand five minutes before I would have to walk away from it. And yet there I was, grooving to it and dancing with my son.

Everyone was friendly, polite, and all the children were treated like royalty. Sesame Place is cute, lovable and was more fun than I had anticipated, despite the rain. We really made a concerted effort to refrain ourselves from constantly complaining about the rain and instead, like everyone else there, tried to make the very best of it. The things you do with and for your children! Seeing my little boy's ecstatic face was our big reward. It's priceless.

We are so grateful that we had the chance to do this with our son. Here’s hoping we can return someday, preferably when it’s SUNNY!!



*We stayed one night for free at a nearby hotel because we had accumulated just enough credit card points. Other freebies we enjoyed were breakfast and dinner (on our second day) courtesy of the hotel itself because our room was in such poor condition. We dined on delicious filet Mignon!