As a Southern Californian with a larger than average family (6 is larger than average, right?), I always wanted to go more than we did, but I acknowledge that once every four years or so is still a fairly high visit ratio.
As a kid, visits were rare enough that I wanted to squeeze every last minute of enjoyment out of the park. My goal was always to open and close the park, (parental) exhaustion be damned!
As a childless adult, I found that my maximum enjoyment was having the annual pass and being able to justify “I’ll come back next month.” to really dig into the experience and sheer immensity of the work and design that goes into generating that experience.
But as a parent, it’s exhausting and demoralizing because I remember how hyped I was as a kid and there’s pressure to return to that mindset as well as having to mind more mundane things like safety and money and time.
