One thing I like about summer days is the chance to take in a carnival. It is months away before the Dixie Classic Fair but with the warming days upon us, to go on a ride or just get a funnel cake is an opportunity not to pass up.

So it was that we took in the annual stop of the Michaels Amusements carnival at the Hanes Mall here in Winston. It is not Carowinds nor the Dixie Classic when it comes to rides but they have a decent selection, more for the youngsters than the adults, and for the price, it is good enough for the family without spending a small fortune at Carowinds.

Madeleine had a great time. There were plenty of rides that she wanted to go on. The carousel is always a favorite of hers but we steered her away from it so that she could try something different. A few of the rides were a bit on the sedate side like the motorcycle ride which was just a different sort of carousel.

Her new favorite, though, was the scaled down Scrambler. The rotating seats along the different pivots going in faster and faster rotations seem to alternately thrilled her and frightened her. I do not think she ever experience speed like that. At the end, all she should say was that she wanted to go again.

As for Christen, there was not too much for her to ride. But she did went on the Tower of Doom drop ride. Personally, I do not see the thrill of the ride where you are just raised up and then dropped just to feel the sensation of everything falling below you along with the 4G’s of force. After that expereince, Christen was notably weak in the knees.

We wandered around a bit. As usual, I avoided the games as I never had any luck with them. I also passed on the food kiosks. Was not that hungry really and while I was a bit tempted by the funnel cakes, I just gave them a pass also.

Before we knew it, we spent all of our alloted tickets and with that we called it a night. For a pleasant diversion, an evening at the carnival is hard to beat.

Photos from the evening at the carnival can be found in the Carnival Days gallery on Snaps.