Weekend Getaway: High Rollers

Editor's Note: As a special travel feature for September, TheStreet.com offers a series of weekend getaways, each designed to help you find the Good Life. Enjoy!

School's starting again, and you know what that means: no little maniacs creating long lines at all the amusement parks of the world!

So it's the perfect time to take a Friday off and get on the big-name thrill rides you've been dreaming about all summer, free from the mind-numbing torture of hours-long, rowdy queues.

Better yet, for the most laughs with the least stress, turn your theme-park visit into a little kitschy-adventure getaway.

Some folks travel for shopping, architecture, food or scuba diving. Whatever. My husband and I? We travel for roller coasters.

It's not like we're obsessed. Honest, we're really not as odd as those people with the matching T-shirts on those Discovery Channel extreme-ride shows. Roller-coaster hunting is just extremely entertaining, and it takes us to quirky places we'd never otherwise experience.

In the past few years we've been across the country -- and even the ocean -- to fabulous destinations with heart-stopping rides and unexpected surprises.

Plus, the souvenir on-ride photos we always bring home have turned the walls of our apartment into a thrilling gallery of exciting memories.

Back to Ohio

For any respectable roller-coaster aficionado, all roads lead directly to Cedar Fair-owned (FUN Quote - Cramer on FUN - Stock Picks) Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio.

Better yet, fly into Cleveland, make the short, lovely drive along Lake Erie, and spend a couple of relaxed days in the area.

Cedar Point's coaster credentials are indisputable: 16 roller coasters, many of them kings of their class, including my personal all-around favorite, Millennium Force. This giant is the world's first over 300-foot coaster, and it boasts an 80-degree initial descent at 92 miles an hour.

Although its record stats have since been surpassed (even within Cedar Point itself, with the addition of the Top Thrill Dragster in 2003), Millennium Force's perfect ride outdoes many of the bigger, badder newbies for sheer thrilling fun.

It's one of those rides that makes everybody talk really loudly afterward, jumping around and hyper from the high of it. You just can't help it (unless, of course, you're one of those strange roller-coaster haters).

Beyond the endless amazing rides, Cedar Point is simply a pleasant amusement park.

It doesn't have that crowded, uncomfortable feel of those other big-name chains like Six Flags (SIX Quote - Cramer on SIX - Stock Picks) or the Disney-brand (DIS Quote - Cramer on DIS - Stock Picks) behemoths.

	Alton Towers, England

You're not just trying desperately to get on all the good rides and then get the hell back to your car; at Cedar Point, you feel relaxed enough to stop and savor a corn dog between coasters.

While we were in Sandusky, we discovered a funky nightlife surprise: a nearby little island in Lake Erie called Put-in-Bay, which is filled with a ridiculous number of tacky-but-cute theme bars and restaurants -- and an even more ridiculous number of crazy Ohioans letting loose, singing, dancing and drinking all over the place.

The island's definitely worth a visit for sheer shock value alone.

Just be aware that the last ferry back to the mainland tends to be on the fully-stewed side, and hence about as peaceful as a frat party.

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