Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 10 years and 9 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

The summer vacations continue: although we just saw the Ohio family two weeks ago in Naples this past July 4th weekend we were back in Cleveland (like last year) for my niece’s baptism.

We flew up on the 4th and spent the afternoon picnicking with family before the evening’s fireworks festivities.

We spent Friday at Cedar Point, the best roller coaster amusement park in the world (in my opinion). I hadn’t been there in about 10 years and was looking forward to riding every coaster in the park with my daughter. It rained on and off most of the day, which put a damper (no pun intended) on most of our plans, but eventually the weather cleared up and we managed to hit every ride we wanted to. I had spent the extra cash on a FastLane pass to make sure my daughter and I could get on every coaster (expecting long lines due to the holiday weekend) but I really only had to use it for GateKeeper (the newest coaster at the park) and Top Thrill Dragster (which I went on by myself, and it was fantastic!).

On Saturday, we grabbed lunch at the West Side Market (great falafel from Maha’s) downtown before heading over to Progressive Jacob’s Field to watch the Indians lose (unfortunately) to the Detroit Tigers.

Sunday morning started with mass, followed by my niece’s baptism, and then a barbecue/picnic at a local park to celebrate. After bidding farewell to the family in the late afternoon, we had dinner and “play time” at Dave & Buster’s, someplace else we hadn’t been to in a long time. We had an early flight Monday morning and were back home in time for lunch, another fun holiday weekend in the books.