It's official: Bay Beach Amusement Park is my new "happy place." I just took the kids there yesterday, and was immediately smitten with the old-school amusement park on the bank of Green Bay.

With the car DVD spinning classic Spiderman cartoons, the hour-and-a-half ride was a breeze. Sure, the gas to get up there was expensive (especially in my mammoth, mommy-esque Jeep Cherokee), but it wasn't a big deal because we spent seven hours in the park riding ourselves silly on rides and snacking it up for a whopping $14.

And after spending $4 for my kid to ride on a big metal bug at the State Fair, I couldn't believe Bay Beach's rides were a quarter for the baby rides and 50 cents for the big-kid rides. My wee ones loved the train, boat ride, pony ride and the five or six little car-and-bug rides. Older kids and adults will dig the tilt-o-whirl, scrambler, massive slide (almost the size of State Fair's), bumper cars and a couple of other lunch hurlers.

There's also a beautiful picnic area overlooking the bay, a nice playground and a wading pool that was warm and clean.

Our $14 even included snacks. Setting a terrible dental example, I got a bag of cotton candy -- gawd, I love that crap -- and the boys got sugar buzzed on orange sodas and Spiderman ice cream bars. I hadn't seen those in years.

We went to Bay Beach with my friend, Anita, who grew up near Green Bay and went to the park as a kid. She says everything is exactly the same, except they moved the bumper cars to the other side of the grounds. Because the rides are so simple, it's not mechanically scary that they're so old. Instead, they're pleasantly nostalgic and vintage-looking, providing a financial and aesthetic experience that's straight outta the '70s.

Sometimes it's refreshing to visit a place where time has stopped. Or at least that's what my "spidey sense" says.