I wanted to take all my kids on solo trips during their teenage years. They can choose where to go, as long as it fits our budget. Peter decided to go to Universal Studios, Six Flags, and Knotts Berry Farm on successive days over fall break. We drove out to California and had a ton of fun.

The best park was Universal Studios, but we enjoyed all three parks. We rode nearly everything at Universal Studios, some of the rides multiple times. That’s just a really solid theme park, but it does only take one day to do everything.

Six Flags is fun, but neither of us wanted to ride the more extreme roller coaster. There’s still plenty of roller coaster. But that’s about all the park is: roller coasters. And some carnival games, Peter did a basketball one and ended up winning the bottom-tier prize.

Peter also ended up with laryngitis for two days and couldn’t talk that well. I didn’t realize how much I like to talk to people until I couldn’t have a decent conversation with anyone around me.

Knotts Berry Farm has some rides we enjoyed quite a bit, but then it got to be afternoon. We got in a long ride for a ride that was terrible, ate some lunch, and then got in a long line for a ride that shut down right before we got on it. The moral of the story is don’t go to theme parks Saturday Afternoon. Also don’t buy theme park tickets in a rush on a phone because I had to deal with two different issues and get two different refunds. Knotts Berry Farm is also tons like our local amusement park Lagoon, so it wasn’t someplace we’ll probably go back to.

After a long day of long lines, minor illnesses, and tiredness, we finally went to our hotel, only to find that the town had a random parade and we couldn’t drive to our hotel. We had to park a few blocks away and walk in. It was such a random day, I felt like I was in a Malcolm in the Middle episode, except none of my kids got in trouble.

After we got back, I took the other kids down to Cornbellys in Spanish Fork on the last day of their fall break.