The Bub in the Belly

Sesame Place was the reason we chose USA as our holiday destination so we were definitely looking forward to our day there. I will write about it over a few posts.

The first thing we did when we got into the park was to buy tickets for up-close dining with Elmo and Friends. We bought a table for lunch and another for dinner. We also rented a stroller for our bags. Ryan had a go on the stroller for a little while, but after that, he wasn't interested in it at all.


The park currently encompasses 16 acres, employs a staff of over 1,500 and is home to more than 30 rides, shows and attractions. Here's a map of the park. Do also check out their commercial for 2011, which was just released a few days ago in the USA.

We planned to see the dry fun attractions first and go on the rides. Then after lunch with Elmo and Friends, we would check out the wet fun attractions and close the day with dinner. We also planned to catch some of the shows along the way.

The first ride Ryan tried was the Sunny Day Carousel. Richard went with him.



Next the three of us went on Grover's World Twirl, where you get in a giant teacup that twirls around and around. I always thought that this would be quite gentle but, oh no, I was not feeling my best by the time the ride ended. Definitely not for motion-sickness prone people!


There is a section of the rides called "Elmo's World", where there are four rides for the whole family. Richard took Ryan on two of them. The first one was Peek-A-Bug, which is a giant bug that spins around and slides up and down.



This one is Flyin' Fish. You can control your "fish" to make it fly up and down as it revolves around.



There were lots and lots more rides and I wish we could have gone on all of them, but we wanted to explore the other parts of the park plus catch some of the performances at various locations in the park.

We walked out and came onto Sesame Neighbourhood. This is the nation's only fully functioning replica of Sesame Street, and it is also the only outdoor re-creation of the set. It includes Big Bird's Nest, 123 Sesame Street, Bert and Ernie's house, Oscar's trash can, the courtyard, Hooper's Store, the Fix-It Shop and Mr. Macintosh's Fruit Store.

Being on that street was incredible - we were actually on Sesame Street! We could sit on those iconic steps outside 123 Sesame Street, go inside Hooper's Store, peek into Oscar's trash can (no, he wasn't there), and hang out at the courtyard next to 123 Sesame Street as if we lived in the neighbourhood. Oh my, the memories! Every Sesame Street scene that I watched as a child came back to me. I recalled those carefree afternoons of childhood, lazing in front of the television when Sesame Street was on, bopping along to the music, jiving to the beat. Not forgetting the theme song that everyone recognises - "Sunny Day/ Sweepin' the clouds away/ On my way to where the air is sweet/ Can you tell me how to get/ How to get to Sesame Street?"

Yes, we can tell you how to get to Sesame Street - we've been there!