Outlet Malls, Scary rides, and Frightful Creatures

Friday afternoon we drove to Lake George NY for a weekend at Mark's mother's home. Included in the weekend was Fright Fest at The Great Escape amusement park. We opted to purchase the season pass which included park admission for Fright Fest, along with all of 2014 season admission. For an extra $20- per person we paid for at least one admission anytime next year to Great Escape (which would pay for itself from that $20-) and several of the other 6-Flags parks in the US, free parking and a ton of additional discounts. Perhaps 2014 will be the year of the Amusement parks? The park did not open until noon, so we had a little time to waste Saturday morning so we hit up the outlet malls.

 Anytime during the summer months these outlets are busting with people who come in swarms to Lake George for the summer holiday. I typically enjoy a few of the stores and most often will walk away with some amazing deal.

This trip was for Mark mostly and the boys got a few things as well. Mark got some great timberland boots, in hindsight I should have pick up some for myself as well. Next time perhaps. It's always fun to look at the manufacture price and gag a little then look at the outlet price and chuckle thinking you have just scored the deal of a century. Other times, you look at the price and think, I could get these elsewhere for even cheaper. Its a hit or miss really.

 After the malls, we headed back to Marks mothers house and she drove us all to The Great Escape for our fun filled day. She lives about a 5 minute drive from the park, so it is really quick and easy to get there. The door to door service was nice too.

Obtaining the park pass was a little more difficult then we expected so we did spend a bit of our time getting the passes and pictures taken etc, but once we were done, we all set to hit the park in a big way. The boys are experts at the Great Escape and this is our third year over the last five that we have done the season pass. Since we are usually in the Lake George area a few times over the summer, it has been a nice "pay for itself" treat these park passes. What I am noticing is that more people are taking advantage of this deal and there are less extras that come along with the pass. The first year we did get free admission for friends on certain days, pass holder picnics, tons of coupons, and lots of extras. This year we did get Fright Fest 2013 for FREE, and FREE parking for the 2014 season (which does add up), special discounts on merchandise, but so far I have not seen any additional extras like in the past. Historically we have totally taken the passes to the extreme, but the boys seemed board with it, so I haven't done it the last few years. I think we just might do several mini vacations the following year that will include the six Flags located in many areas in the US.

The boys have posed with this fellow before. Meet Jack o Lantern. 

Fright Fest is a Halloween themed weekend at the Great Escape, and we always have tons of fun.

There is all kind of creepy creatures and scary scenes staged throughout the park, which is always fun to get our fear factor up.

Better be good or Santa will send these elves to take care of you. Talk about creepy.

The staff is always friendly, but this guy wasn't to helpful.

 This poor chap, jumped just a little to high, and apparently lost his life...

 Then there are the rides...that can be pretty scary too!

We really didn't do many rides on this trip, I actually only went on one myself. Basically it is the scrambler, this one is located inside and to add to the fun, they have it in the dark with fun lights and sound effects. Initially there were very few lines, and the wait time for most of the kids favorites were little, but as the day progressed the park got pretty packed, and some of our favorite rides were closed for the season. 

They did have to make a trip to the cars. Some of the same rides remain from when Mark was a kid, and the cars have always been a staple. The boys waited in line regardless.

They also went on this fun ride, established must later then these old time cars.

Other family favorites are the bumper cars and the Canyon Blaster. 

This year the Canyon Blaster had a new feature, you can ride backwards. 

The boys waited in line, and I took a stroll through the Ghost Town. Although I didn't see any Ghost's I did see a ton of characters and a bloody river.

Apparently there was a gun fight, and there was no winner. Even the horse died!

Around the way, I found this beauty, apparently even in death her duty calls. Is that what happens when you smoke to much?

I found one of her patrons too. Or maybe he is the sheriff, he looks pretty serious. 

How can he be so happy, cant he see he measures up perfectly?

All this scary stuff you would think that there is nothing here for little kids. This guy even brought his baby.

And this women brought a unicorn.

See, totally appropriate for small children.  But honestly, there is tons of fun for the little kids. Each year they have a trick or treat village. This time it was located at Alice and Wonderland's attraction, and to greet each child was The Queen and The White Rabbit.

Down the rabbit hole with our trick or treat goodies!

The boys played around in the little town. These small houses, store fronts and jail would have been one of my favorites as a kid, I just loved little houses and I would have played for hours. 

These and Alice in Wonderland are a throw back to the Parks early days.

Now for a few games. Kids win some thing no matter how bad they play. They each got silly hats. 

  

After the games we were on to a few shows. Fester did a comedy gig.

And then the moment we had all been waiting for THE DEAD RISE and start to walk!

First they walk, and then they DANCE!

They dance to Thriller of course. And it is tons of fun. Once they complete their dancing, the creatures walk the park. 

and even more creatures come out to play, like this guy. And the chain saw guys roam about ready to make anyone terrified. 

These guys walked back and fourth every now and then starting up their chain saws. There were some kids in the area who were crying they were so scared. Their parents was playfully threatening them, and the terror on their face was awful. I know it was all in good fun, but these kids were absolutely scared out of their wits. 

My kids were pros and Ben even stared this guy down.

Gavin teased one of the Zombies by walking up behind him and saying "boo", he was chased as a result and he ran first hiding behind me, then his dad.

The boys also loved the dry ice that was flowing everywhere. The played for quite a bit in one area off from the center stage, trying to catch the mist in their hats. 

Then suddenly look what was in that mist......

I thought this creepy crawler was the most scariest of all. She was so slow and would just lurk around. 

I took several pictures of her and she stayed there on that ledge for some time before anyone even knew she was there, even the boys were off behind her unaware. Just watching her walk along with the crowd was creepy. I'm not sure what horror film she was from, but YEP, she won my award for most fearful. 

More friendly Zombies were willing to take a pose with my hubby.

But this one ONLY stared me down. 

We stayed a little bit longer and watched the Zombies perform some more dance moves, as well as caught the magic show by Larry. He was pretty cool until he started to swallow razor blades. Yeah! I was done once that started. 

The boys were mesmerized by this guy, so while they watched the show I watched for more creepy characters. I saw this guy.....

 plus his creepy friend behind him. 

There was this guy...

lurking in the cemetery, and this poor construction worker who must have had a terrible accident. He would slowly walk along and scrape his shovel along the pavement behind some unaware guest. It was great.

There were a few additional show highlights, as well as some additional fee admissions to the haunted houses, but we were starting to get tired and hungry. 

We called bubbe and were soon on our way back to her place, then we really made the day a horror fest by having a late dinner at the Golden Corral. ALL YOU CAN EAT buffet's....and boy did we eat!!!!! We all felt like dying after pigging out when we left. 

Wonderfully good day. We had so much fun. I just love the Halloween theme, and I am so glad that although we did not make it to one of the camp ground themed weekend, we were able to enjoy the theme park and all of it's haunting creatures. We will definitely be making a return visit. In fact maybe we will spice it up a bit and try Halloween at another Six Flags park next time.