Two momentous events recently took place in 2001: my younger brother Anthony graduated from high school, and my sister Amy graduated from college. I couldn’t be there for Amy’s commencement ceremony, but I managed to schedule a trip home for me and Snookums in June that would pack in Antny’s ceremony, the joint graduation party, a trip to Cedar Point, and a couple days in Chicago. The initial journey home was a bit hectic (stupid Air Canada cancelled our flight as we were on the runway due to “mechanical problems”), but we made it eventually. Here are some of the highlights:

The joint graduation party was held at my Aunt Deb’s house out in the country in Indiana. She’s got this massive paved driveway that goes down a hill, so day long people were riding up and down it on these micro-scooters. My sister eventually challenged Snookums to a race, so here they are revving at the starting line.

On advice from my dad (in the background), Snookums decided he better figure out how to steer and stop this thing. The hill is steep.

Amy won this heat handily. There she is way down at the bottom, while Snookums is still only halfway down.

Still basking in her victory, Amy’s attention turned to the pile of presents with her name on them. My cousin Megan looks on as Amy is pleased with her booty. (Hahaha… that looks funny. Not what I intended, but I dare say she is pleased with her other booty as well.)

Now it’s Antny’s turn. That’s our little cousin Courtney on the left, and my Grandma and Aunt Vera on the right. (Yes, we’re in a garage. That’s where everybody in Indiana holds their Graduation Open House, especially when it rains.)

Here’s Ant in his cap and gown with Grandma Veva. I always hated that shade of Columbia Blue. The girls got to wear a lovely Dark Red, fortunately.

I was worried that Snookums would get bored with all the cheesy family stuff, but he hung in there like a trooper. Of course, the beer might have helped. 🙂

Finally, conclusive proof of the fact that though I am the oldest of the siblings at 24, I am also the shortest at a mere 5’10”. Yeah, that’s right. Amy’s 5’11” and Antny’s well over 6 foot. We’re a family of Gigantors. You’d never guess that the three of us were a quarter Korean.

Dad squeezes in for a shot. Don’t we look cute?

I didn’t want to be lame and take pictures through the ceremony, so I waited until the end when the graduates filed back in and stood facing the audience before tossing their caps. They had the lights kind of turned down, though, so I marked where Ant is in the shot. The yellow thing around his neck was for Honor Roll, I believe, and the lei was for the Chemistry Club.

Enough boring family stuff. On to the excitement of “America’s Roller Coast”!

Okay, so on Monday the 4th me, Snookums, Amy, and Ant piled into my rental car (a sweet Sonata that they upgraded me to free!) and drove the three hours to Cedar Point. We checked in at Breakers Express and headed to Challenge Park to ride the go-karts and play mini-golf. We were up bright and early the next morning and headed for the park.

My family’s been going to Cedar Point just about every summer for as long as I can remember, but I’ve missed the last couple years. In that time they introduced a new roller coaster: the Millennium Force. It’s the tallest, fastest, steepest roller coaster in the world. Here’s our view of it driving to the park.

Apparently everybody else in the world had the same idea to get there early, so we had to wait in a large crowd for the gates to open. Antny is obviously still asleep, Amy’s excited to get to the rides, and Snookums is contemplating the Millennium Force, which we’ve decided to ride first.

Here’s a staggeringly unattractive photo of yours truly and Snookums in line. My Dad said he waited over four hours to ride the Millennium last year, so we decided to go straight to it to minimize the time standing around. As it turns out, so few people were in the park that day that we only waited about 15 minutes for this ride, and barely at all for anything else.

My brother is incapable of looking normal in a photograph. He’s always gotta make a face. Here he is showing off as we leave the station. (Or it might be at the end of the ride. I can’t really tell. Amy took this one.)

Here’s a self-portrait of Amy and Ant as the train climbs the first hill. The ride uses a new elevator-type cable lift system that pulls you up very smoothly and very fast. Snookums and I are in the seats behind them, preparing to crap ourselves at any moment. (My sister took all the pictures on the ride with her little disposable camera, despite it being highly forbidden. She’s nuts.)

Though the Millennium doesn’t go upside down at all, there are some really steep banked turns. Here’s one of them that my crazy sister was able to snap.

At one point, Amy held her arms up and took a picture with the camera facing backwards. Here’s the resulting shot of me behind her. Snookums is to my right. He looks kinda hunched down because, as he himself put it, the G-forces caused his spine to telescope and shrink him to half his height. (Not really, but there were some serious G’s going on there.)

This shot demonstrates how empty it was in the park. Isn’t that nuts? Seriously, we walked on to nearly every ride in the park. We skipped all the water rides, though, since it was rather chilly. That’s Snake River Falls running empty there behind us.

As a graduation present I paid for Amy and Antny to do the RipCord, which supposedly “combines elements of skydiving, hang-gliding and free-fall-type ride experiences into one thrilling adventure.” Basically, it’s a gigantic swing that hangs from a huge arch, and they haul you up on a wire and let you drop. Antny’d done it before, but Amy hadn’t. Hence her freaked out face.

Once they get you strapped in, they drop the floor and you end up hanging. Then they start hauling you up to the top of those big metal towers behind the arch.

Here they are almost at the top. Once they get up there, the voice on the mike gives a countdown and then somebody (Antny) has to pull the ripcord. I guess Amy was screaming obscenities so loudly at this point that Ant had difficulty hearing the announcer.

Snookums managed to capture the two of them at the bottom of their initial free-fall. Pretty scary, huh?

Meanwhile, I had turned around to capture them soaring way above our heads. There they are!

Once they slowed down a bit, we were able to get a better shot of them flying by.

And they survived! Amy’s still shaking, but Antny (as usual) is cool, calm, and making a ridiculous face. He has very expressive eybrows.

Seriously, this is one of the funniest pictures my sister’s ever taken. The larger version is even better.

Along the Frontier Trail is the Olde Tyme Photo Shoppe. We couldn’t resist. Here’s Snookums the gambler with Kris the Saloon Hoochie. As Snookums later pointed out, I obviously have no idea what to do with a gun.

A second pose with a little eye contact. (Seriously, could that dress have made my chest look any larger? I don’t think so. I look like Dolly Parton.)

Amy and Anthony were whispering and snickering the whole time our photos were being taken. They’d had the brilliant idea of getting one done themselves, but in drag. So there’s my sister the Outlaw with my brother the Prostitute. Lovely. (Again, Antny’s face makes me laugh.)

I think Amy the Outlaw has realized that her lady friend has, uh, very hairy legs…

Snookums and I started a new collection of flattened pennies. Here’s our first.

It’s me with my favorite boy in front of my favorite fountain in the park. Don’t we look cute?

There’s nothing like some chili fries before you ride one of the tallest, fastest stand-up roller coasters in the world.

Here’s the four of us at the end of the day. It’s a nice picture. Mad props to the random woman who took it for us!

On Thursday Snookums and I returned the rental car to O’Hare Airport and then caught the Cubs-Cardinals game at Wrigley Field in Chicago. We stayed with friends and took off Friday for a quick day of sightseeing in the city. First stop was the John Hancock building…

I love this picture. There’s Snookums in silhouette checking out the shore of Lake Michigan from the observation deck.

Hey look! There’s Snookums taking a snooze on his lunch break on a girder high above Chicago. Be careful!

There’s Snookums again, high above the city! This time he’s washing windows. What a daredevil. (Cheers to the Hancock people for indulging my love of trick photography.)

This penny is from Ed Debevic’s, where we ate lunch. It’s a 50’s style diner with rude waitstaff (purposefully – it’s fun!) and yummy food.

This last penny is from Navy Pier, where we walked around and shopped.

That’s it! There was lots more I didn’t get photos of (dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Harter’s, breakfast in the buggy at the Essenhaus Amish Restaurant, hanging out at the Brew & View in Chicago, etc.), but you get the general idea. Congratulations again to my brother and sister on graduating!