Kennywood Holiday Lights

Kennywood -- Pittsburgh's main place for rides, clowns, ice cream, fries, and multi-children families -- tries to squeeze the last money from this year. They organize a Holiday Lights programme which equals regular Kennywood minus rides minus 75% of regular traffic plus Christmas decorations plus bazillions of light bulbs plus cold weather.

Still, that makes an attractive deal.

During Holiday Lights the park is content-impoverished, but hopefully you can enjoy the beauty of the decorations.

The central area around the pond.

People waiting to get in.

Christmas presents, but not for me.

A cake building?

I wonder what tricks parents come up with
to make their children enter this crypt.

At the scene, a mutual torture process took place. A local high school's choir and dance company were tortured by the freezing cold.

Spectators, in turn, were tortured by less-than-perfect choreography and misbehaving equipment. I imagine the performance was still considered a huge success.

A few fireplaces warmed passers-by. Surprisingly it was a great success even among the people with a fair layer of insulation. Perhaps they overestimated their cold resistance?

They show this giant railroad thing -- a perfect way for a kid to pay for a happy childhood with a socially awkward adolescence.

It's huge, indeed.

The Giant Snowman provides nice opening shots for a horror movie. 

The Snowman Path

The trees play up.

He has 3 balls.

Whoops sorry, a wrong one.

And this is where the snowman lives, I presume.

The trees displayed a large variety of colors. 

Too straightforward.

RGB!

Mmmmmmagenta!

Green, the most surprising color for a tree in December.

Look, tree, you're special.
But it's not your fault.

Winter blues.

The creepiest ride at Holiday Lights is a merry-go-round.

Why is it creepy? Because numerous horror movies redefine the public image of merry-go-rounds to be something horrific.

 

The key activity at any place, if present at all, is a petting zoo. First-order associations aside, it is where you can drop enormous amounts of stress at the cost of dirty hands and shoes. I never miss such a chance.

Hoofed animals only.
Not counting that guy and myself.

Lamas are never lame...

... even when they sit down.

The most tobacco animal ever.

Sheep have blue eyes.

 

And ear tags.

Sheep chilling together.

A petty sheep thief.

Now, grab a glass of your favorite alcohol, fullscreen one video below, enjoy the blinking lights, and get a check for epilepsy absolutely free.

"It was adorable", said my rods and cones after I left the park. And you never argue with your rods and cones, if you are not John.
--

Happy New Year and other holidays, they be damned!