Pacific Park at the Santa Monica Pier

After our horrible evening last night, I felt like I needed to do something fun with my son today. He's a thrill ride enthusiast (at the tender age of three and a half), so I figured we could finally check out Pacific Park at the Santa Monica Pier.

We got there around 11:30am; enough time to go on a few rides before lunch. I parked right at the pier ($8 cash), then it was a short walk to the entrance to the park. I had purchased our tickets online before we left the house, but we still had to wait in line to pick up our wristbands. I highly recommend buying online before you go since they offer a discount; I paid $18.95 for an unlimited rides wristband for me (ages eight and over, $21.95 at the park), and $13.95 for another one for my son (ages seven and under, $15.95 at the park). Having never gone on the rides there before, at first I wasn't sure how many of the rides my son would actually be able to go on, but again, their web site provided some rides and height requirements information that I checked out beforehand. Alternatively, you can pay in cash as you go; each ride is either $5 or $3.

The main ticket booth was right next to the entrance to the West Coaster roller coaster, so of course my son wanted to jump on it first. Unfortunately, he doesn't quite meet the minimum height requirement yet, so we ended up on Sea Dragon, which was also right there. Needless to say, my son loved it! From there, we hit up Frog Hopper, Inkie's Wave Jumper, Sea Planes, Inkie's Pirate Ship, then Pacific Plunge before breaking for lunch. We walked over to the Pier and got some grub, and I was reminded of how aggressive the pigeons and sea gulls would get around food dropped on the floor. (A seagull almost crashed into teen a couple of tables away from us as it flew off with some prized crumbs.)

After lunch, I let my son go on the Sig Alert EV bumper cars ride. He had a blast trying to maneuver his car around; the round cars are controlled by two levers for each hand, without any pedals. Afterwards, we hopped on the solar-powered Pacific Wheel ferris wheel. That thing was huge! And it went way, way up into the air; half-way up, I was reminded of how I'm not really fond of ferris wheels. (I don't really mind heights, but stopping at 130 feet up while sitting in a slowly swaying car is a little unnerving for me.) You get some great views from up there though!

Next up was Inkie's Air Lift, followed by Inkie's Scrambler. I told my son that Scrambler was like Log Peeler at Knott's (which he loves), but bigger and faster. (I recommend that adults sit closest to the door; that way, the smaller rider smooshes into you, and not the other way around.) On our way out, we hit up Crazy Submarine, then finally Eurobungy (which was an additional $5 cash since it's not included in the unlimited rides wristband).

All in all, it was a fun outing. Including time for lunch and absolutely no games, we were out of there by 3:30pm, and the only ride we didn't go on was the roller coaster. We'll definitely visit again!

Check out their Facebook page for more information and chances to win free wristbands! And if you're on Twitter, you can also follow them @pacpark.