Growing up in Southern California, there were numerous popular theme parks within the space of a couple hours’ drive.

Still, some of my favorite theme park memories from that time period revolve around vacation visits with relatives in Utah when we all went to Lagoon.

Why?

Three words: The Fun House.

Now, it’s been said that Disneyland is the happiest place on Earth. But I submit that the people making that claim were not teenage boys who had ever romped to their heart’s content in Lagoon’s Fun House. What was so great about the Fun House? Two things stand out in my memory. The first was a giant gunny sack slide that seemed to start at the building’s extreme highest spot — and as I recall, you could race against a friend in the next lane.

However, the hands-down coolest item in the house o’ fun was a spinning merry-go-round-esque/king-of-the-hill hybrid challenge. A certain amount of people were all allowed to climb onto the top center of this attraction to start, and then it would slowly start to spin. It would gradually pick up steam and one-by-one participants would get knocked loose from their precarious perches at the top — either by pure centrifugal force or, more often than not, a sneaky push or shove from a fellow rider.

The orb would stop spinning only when there was one final rider left on top. Then it would be a mad rush to get back in line and do it all over again.

I was reminded of the old Fun House — which closed sometime during the 1980s, partially for (surprise, surprise) safety and liability issues — when strolling past its previous location during a recent visit to Lagoon just after the park opened for the 2013 season. Flashbacks flooded back of those exciting times gone by. But the great thing about Lagoon is it remains rife with opportunity to create completely new memories.

Lagoon, of course, offers a variety of thrills for the whole family. But my wife, Jenn, and I were having none of that on our recent visit, as we opted for a parents day at the park. Admittedly, I had to snicker a bit when Jenn told me about what one of our daughters’ friends had said when she discovered we were going to the park and leaving all the kids at home.

“Just your parents are going?” the friend queried. “Isn’t that kind of weird?”

Apparently one person’s weird is another’s great day. Go figure.

Upon arriving at the park, we decided to hit some of the bigger attractions first. So we went straight to Wicked and Colossus. Wicked, which was added in 2007, was completely new to us. We had visited Lagoon a time or two since it opened, but the lines were always so long we had reluctantly decided to skip it in favor of less time-consuming options. The lines were not bad early on this Saturday — we ended up waiting 21 minutes. The ride itself lasted around 1 minute.

We were unprepared for Wicked’s jolting start. I guess we could have easily watched those ahead of us — but we were busy talking and people watching (not necessarily in that order). Most thrill rides take a slow, gradual build-up approach to climb the initial big hill — but not Wicked. Riders, who travel in group pods of eight people, are essentially blasted up and over the main incline and into the rest of the ride. It was an unexpected and enjoyable surprise.

Upon disembarking, we decided to have a second go-round, but this time we tested the single-rider line. If you don’t mind not sitting with your companion — although, many times you still do — then give this line a try. Wait time was trimmed to 13 minutes this go-round, and could have even been a lot less.

Colossus: The Fire Dragon has been a Lagoon staple for decades. In fact, the double-upside-down-looped thriller marks its 30th year this season. The wait time was only 11 minutes, so we jumped back in line for a second attempt.

After starting the day off with a double dose of the Wicked and Colossus adrenaline goosers, we were looking to calm things down for a while. (The old equilibrium just isn’t what it used to be.) So we took off in the direction of Pioneer Village, figuring to cool our jets on Rattlesnake Rapids and the Log Flume — two water-based attractions where you can pretty much count on getting wet. We took a momentary detour, however, into a nearby shop where we purchased a tasty cinnamon roll and also picked up some extra plastic wrap, figuring it would help us protect our cell phones from any potential water damage.

Rattlesnake Rapids wasn’t crowded at all, and we basically walked right into our circular vessel, where we were joined only by one teenage passenger who was going for his second straight ride. He was completely soaked from his previous tour, which didn’t bode well for our voiced (but not really believed) hopes of avoiding a dousing. We did pretty well through 95 percent of the ride, but ended up passing right through a waterfall near the end. It’s almost as if they planned it that way. Oh, well, getting wet is half the fun, isn’t it?

While there is definitely something to be said for the joy of seeing your children have so much fun at the theme park, one of the main advantages to going as a couple is being able to take things as slow or as fast as you want. When we tired of high-speed attractions and longer lines, we were plenty content to casually stroll through ancient buildings like the Gingerbread House and the Rock Chapel, or simply chill and talk while inching along in the Sky Ride, which affords a bird’s-eye view as it transports you from one end of the park to the other.

Another fun aspect later in the day was watching the house band perform on stage. The mixed male and female group rocked its way through some 80’s classics, including hits by artists such as Journey and Pat Benatar. While these days are long gone, it hearkened back to a period when Lagoon attracted some of the top musical talent of its day. Among some of the heavy hitters who have graced stages at Lagoon in the past are the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, The Beach Boys, The Doors, Johnny Cash (every year between 1959-68), The Monkees and Van Halen. (OK, I’m just kidding about the last one to see if you’re still reading along. Diamond David Lee Roth would never be able to slip his seatless leather chaps past the Lagoon basic standards committee.)

Sometimes you hear the darndest things while waiting in line. A few of our favorite eavesdropping moments produced these odd exclamations from fellow line walkers:

• “Two people died in here earlier today.” (Said by one father to his children before entering Dracula’s Castle.)

• “I think I’m going to use that massage voucher after school gets out.”

• “Do you want to have eggs for dinner tonight?”

• “There’s a lot of weight in that boat.” (Overheard as several large family members were shoehorned into a vessel on the log flume.)

After going on as many rides as we could fit into the day, here’s a few suggestions. Unless they are some of your absolute favorite rides, we would skip The Bat, the Log Flume and the Hydro Tube. All three feature lines that take an extremely long time to pass through — despite there not really being all that many people waiting — for very short rides that weren’t all that exciting anyway. It’s a lot of waiting for little payoff.

Do try the Air Race, new in 2012, which gives riders the sensation of acrobatic flight with banks, loops, dives and weightlessness with a force of almost 4Gs.

The two separate attractions of The Rocket were a personal favorite of mine, with both the Blast Off and Re-Entry rides offering the yin and yang of stomach-churning adventure.

As a couple, our favorite ride was the famous old, faithful Roller Coaster. Originally built in 1921, it remains one of the few wooden coasters left in the Western U.S. The attraction has both white- and brown-colored wood, as it is in a constant state of updating as sections are rebuilt every year. When it is completely refurbished, it will all be brown and the familiar white will be a thing of the past.

The thrill-to-minutes-in-line ratio for the Roller Coaster was excellent, and it seemed to attract an upbeat and fun-loving group of riders. We probably rode on this at least a half-dozen times. We knew it was our kind of crowd when, during a 10-minute “cycle-change” delay, a group started the “We Will Rock You” stomp, stomp, clap refrain and kept it up for several minutes before it eventually died out.

Lagoon — even without the old Fun House — definitely rocked us on our parents-only excursion. Maybe next time we’ll even take the kids.

Lagoon 2013 season

Where: 375 Lagoon Drive, Farmington (Take Exit No. 322 off of I-15.)

Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday through Aug. 25. After that, the park is open at various days and times through Oct. 30. Check www.lagoonpark.com for details.

Admission: Regular $45.95, Kinder $40.95 (4 years of age up to 50 inches in height), Senior Citizen $40.95 (65-plus), Toddler $29.95 (3 years and under)

Parking: $9

Info: (801) 451-8000, www.lagoonpark.com

More online: For a photo gallery and additional video content, see www.heraldextra.com.

Enter to win: UtahAdventurer.com is giving away a pair of Lagoon All-Day Passports! To enter, simply go to UtahAdventurer on Facebook and look for the Lagoon Contest Tab.