Cedar Point Amusement Park

Heather took an outside-the-box approach to Friends Recommend, most notably with her Skip the Bar and Be a Better Person categories. As mentioned in one of the first posts, this is acceptable and encouraged...no need to limit your recommendations to just music, art, movies, and books. The first post from her list comes from the Skip the Bar section, and I can't think of a better place to recommend (I can't think of a better place in the whole world!).

Cedar Point Amusement Park is located in Sandusky, Ohio which sits on Lake Erie. I have visited twice in my life, the first time with Cory Palmer (see Friends Recommend week 2) and the second time with Heather. I will keep going back as long as I can keep convincing people to go with me. It is a bit of a hike from Baltimore (about 6 hours) but well worth the trip. I recommend driving up in the afternoon, staying overnight (the hotels are pretty cheap), and waking up to spend a whole day in the park. You could probably do two days...I've never even addressed the water parks.

What is so great about this place? It's received the Golden Ticket by Amusement Today for Best Amusement Park 11 years in a row, with 3 roller coasters in the Top 10 in the world, and 5 in the top 20. If you like roller coasters this place is a must-visit. The Millenium Force is my favorite ride ever, and it is extra amazing in the night-time. The Top Thrill Dragster is a hydraulically-launched coaster (huh?) with a drop of over 400 feet at a speed of 120mph. It is nuts and the ride lasts about 10 seconds total. Still worth it. Those two rides alone would be worth the journey to Cedar Point, but Wikipedia has 17 roller coasters listed for Cedar Point so there is plenty more than just these two to keep you entertained. You also get all of your standard amusement park rides to go with them. More info (way more than you could ever want) over at Wikipedia here. And some hot pictures of the place below:

Millenium Force

Top Thrill Dragster