Little Kids' Vacation 2014, Pt. 8

So. Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster. It doesn't hold a candle to Storybook Land, in my opinion. It's not as well maintained and includes many elements that are 1980's, like, spaceship old (i.e., not quite old enough to be cute). It does have some vintage offerings of a Dutch flavor, but fairy-tale offerings are slim pickin's. I was disappointed to learn that the giant shoe slide was decommissioned just last year.

Walk through and push a button to watch little people inside make candy.

Clockwise from Top L: Little Red School House, Wally the Whale ('63-''67), Old 99 ('74-'02), Swan Boat ('67-'75).

Dutch Wonderland's newest addition: animatronic dinosaurs. I wasn't really into them, or at least, I don't understand why the park didn't use that money to improve its rides and shows.

Having said all that, Dutch Wonderland was the little kids' favorite. Duke's Lagoon beats Storybook Land's splash park by far, and Dutch Wonderland has more than double the rides of Storybook Land.

Chip discovered a PlasmaCar: loved it! 

And Dutch Wonderland has roving and performing characters. The girls didn't so much notice that the non-dive shows left something to be desired...because Princess Brooke! In a pink gown!

I did appreciate The Adventures of the Frog Prince (the high-dive show we watched) very much. The girls sat in the splash zone, but Jim, Chip, my camera, and I sat above all that madness. I had a hard time getting photos from where we sat (We were under cover of some sort!), but I'm still marveling that no one broke his or her neck diving into that pool. You can watch a video of the frog divers, here, with the highest dive point at 0:22 or so. (I don't think anyone dives from the highest dive point in the video, but at least you can appreciate how very high the highest dive point is!)

Frog Prince Postcard We Bought at Dutch Wonderland

Again, I wouldn't personally choose Dutch Wonderland over Storybook Land, especially given the higher cost of Dutch Wonderland. Still, it's charming in its own way, and we enjoyed our time there. We saved a little bit of money by purchasing 7-Day Advance Tickets. We also took advantage of the Preview Plan and visited the park for three hours the night before our full day.

Before I close, I'm going to stick in a few random photos from the Lancaster area, thereby blogging out the rest of this particular vacation.

Sampled shoo-fly pie, here.

Found this dog statue on the campus of Franklin & Marshall College.

Strasburg, PA: Amos (Hershey Farm Restaurant and Inn) and Barefoot Boy Eats with Pigs (Katie's Kitchen).

And last but not least: The Haines Shoe House in Hellam. This may well be my dream house. I can't say with 100% certainty (It was closed when we drove by, so I didn't get to tour the inside!), but chances are good that--any day of the week and twice on Sunday--I'd trade our log cabin for a giant shoe house.