Christmas break we decided to try Knott's, a more low key theme park counterpart to Disneyland which had a Western theme - chicken dinners, Pendleton apparel, old West town - and a measure of authenticity, built around an historical Walter and Cordelia Knott and their berry stand:
My family sometimes went to Knotts just for the famous fried chicken dinners and shopping, which you didn't need park admission to frequent.
The ghost town - former center of the park - was actually foraged from abandoned ghost towns and rebuilt in Buena Park as a backdrop for the Western spirit and Americana patriotism. This later melded perfectly with the '70s Jesus Movement, as a Knott grandson purportedly attended Calvary Chapel and, later, the Simon Greenleaf Law School - the explanation for the quality Christian bookstore on site. I used to attend the New Year's Eve concerts and bought some hard to find apologetics books there.
Now, it's morphed into Camp Snoopy, lending a cartoonish motif to the hotel and the Peanuts franchise everywhere.
I have mixed feelings about it all, but Michael & Jack loved it, especially the amusement park rides, much like pier arcades and roller coasters.
reminding me of pushing him in a swing upon returning from Guangzhou. He wanted to keep going higher, laughing hysterically