Robee under the fountain.
Thomas and Felix getting dumped on by the bucket.
The line for check-in. This was the WORST line ever. Ugh.Thomas and I decided to surprise the kids with a trip to the newest attraction south of Olympia Washington. It's located in a po-dunk town that used to be less than a blip on the map. Now, it's a family destination. It's called Great Wolf Lodge and there are about 11 of these fancy-shmacy water parks located throughout the Midwest and east coast. This is the only one located west of the one in Texas, so that makes Washington kinda speeshal, fer sure. http://greatwolf.com/grandmound/waterpark
It is an indoor water park (and that would make sense here in the very wet and chilly winter Northwest) and holds about 340,000 gals of water. It has four main gigantic slides, wave pool, kiddie pond, and water fort that has 1,000 gal bucket that dumps water on the crowd every two minutes. The entire hotel is made for kids. At night, it's like a huge slumber party, with kids running from place to place on some sort of adventure hunt or magic quest.
And there is a bar downstairs for the weary parents to numb themselves from the day's activities. I heard it was full almost every night. :D
The hotel is definitely pricey; ours was $250/night but that's because - although we were planning it for awhile - we didn't book until two weeks before our planned trip. We're paid when the court is paid and if the court isn't paid, then we have to wait. Can be a little unnerving at times.
Anyway, the price of the rooms varies, depending on the room and the price also includes the pass to the water park. For those of you who haven't been to water parks lately, they have risen in cost. Some parks are around $40 to $50 for a day pass. So if you figure four of us for $40 is $160 and then a room can cost for four anywhere from $90 to $130 per night ... it just about breaks even.
Nuff with the economics. So this water park has this one famous slide called the Howlin' Tornado. Famous it is. I had heard it was a whirlpool type of slide which I had a hard time wrapping my mind around that visual.
It is an indoor water park (and that would make sense here in the very wet and chilly winter Northwest) and holds about 340,000 gals of water. It has four main gigantic slides, wave pool, kiddie pond, and water fort that has 1,000 gal bucket that dumps water on the crowd every two minutes. The entire hotel is made for kids. At night, it's like a huge slumber party, with kids running from place to place on some sort of adventure hunt or magic quest.
And there is a bar downstairs for the weary parents to numb themselves from the day's activities. I heard it was full almost every night. :D
The hotel is definitely pricey; ours was $250/night but that's because - although we were planning it for awhile - we didn't book until two weeks before our planned trip. We're paid when the court is paid and if the court isn't paid, then we have to wait. Can be a little unnerving at times.
Anyway, the price of the rooms varies, depending on the room and the price also includes the pass to the water park. For those of you who haven't been to water parks lately, they have risen in cost. Some parks are around $40 to $50 for a day pass. So if you figure four of us for $40 is $160 and then a room can cost for four anywhere from $90 to $130 per night ... it just about breaks even.
Nuff with the economics. So this water park has this one famous slide called the Howlin' Tornado. Famous it is. I had heard it was a whirlpool type of slide which I had a hard time wrapping my mind around that visual.
When we finally got on the thing, it was actually a half-pipe slide. You sit in a four-leaf clover inter tube - balancing my weight with skinny Robee was a challenge - and then the life guard shoves you down a giant dark tube (like being born really). Then the inter tube bounces through twists and turns and if you're unlucky like me, you're going backwards so you have no idea of the terror that lies before you. However, being in direct line with Robee's facial expressions let me know we were in for the worst.
Suddenly the bottom falls out - meaning the slide drops straight down - and you go sliding into an enormous half-pipe cavern. By this time, Robee is screaming from his abdomen and his eyes have almost popped from his sockets.
Now the tube careens back and forth in Class 10 rapids, all the while I'm facing backwards and watching Robee's expression for the next section of this pit of doom. You then come to an almost calm standstill after flying back and forth four or five times and for that nano second, you're lulled into a moment of serene thought - not for long.
The bottom drops again (not quite as drastic as the first but still enough you think you've left part of your intestine back in the cavern) and the tube twists and turns again and then you finally leave what seems like hour-long stomach-heaving ride into a calm relaxing pool of warm water so that you can exit .............. and then stand line for another turn.
Yep. Robee, Felix (she finally joined us after she saw I was still alive) and I rode that thing at least six times. The wait for the darn thing was sometimes up to 1/2 hour so you have to really want to ride it. We couldn't talk Thomas into that one, although he did do everything else. That's okay; he doesn't force me to see scary movies, I don't force him to go on the Howlin' Tornado.
I won't go into to detail about the rest of the park (I hear cheers) but I had to relate the experience of that slide.
It is a cool place and the kids were so excited. As I mentioned, we surprised them. We told them we were going to go to Long Beach for client something or other; we do that a lot to finish up old business in Long Beach and the kids love going to see our old home. So they were so not suspecting anything. Also my kids tend to be not focused on what's going on around them. They're just along for the ride.
So we pull into the street leading to the lodge and Felix is the first one to see it. She says, "Oh! That's that water park place that Kenzie (her friend) went to with her family. She said it was way fun. We should go there sometime." We're now pulling into the parking lot and the kids have funny looks on their faces and we stop the car and say, "Guess what. We're not going to Long Beach. We're going here instead. Surprise!"
Robee, since he has no idea what this place is, asks if it has a pool. Felix starts screaming and saying, "Robee! This isn't just a pool! It's an indoor water park!!" And then he starts screaming and everyone is screaming and happy.
THAT was the best part of the weekend for me. I was excited to see them happy and excited. It was totally worth it to us.
Suddenly the bottom falls out - meaning the slide drops straight down - and you go sliding into an enormous half-pipe cavern. By this time, Robee is screaming from his abdomen and his eyes have almost popped from his sockets.
Now the tube careens back and forth in Class 10 rapids, all the while I'm facing backwards and watching Robee's expression for the next section of this pit of doom. You then come to an almost calm standstill after flying back and forth four or five times and for that nano second, you're lulled into a moment of serene thought - not for long.
The bottom drops again (not quite as drastic as the first but still enough you think you've left part of your intestine back in the cavern) and the tube twists and turns again and then you finally leave what seems like hour-long stomach-heaving ride into a calm relaxing pool of warm water so that you can exit .............. and then stand line for another turn.
Yep. Robee, Felix (she finally joined us after she saw I was still alive) and I rode that thing at least six times. The wait for the darn thing was sometimes up to 1/2 hour so you have to really want to ride it. We couldn't talk Thomas into that one, although he did do everything else. That's okay; he doesn't force me to see scary movies, I don't force him to go on the Howlin' Tornado.
I won't go into to detail about the rest of the park (I hear cheers) but I had to relate the experience of that slide.
It is a cool place and the kids were so excited. As I mentioned, we surprised them. We told them we were going to go to Long Beach for client something or other; we do that a lot to finish up old business in Long Beach and the kids love going to see our old home. So they were so not suspecting anything. Also my kids tend to be not focused on what's going on around them. They're just along for the ride.
So we pull into the street leading to the lodge and Felix is the first one to see it. She says, "Oh! That's that water park place that Kenzie (her friend) went to with her family. She said it was way fun. We should go there sometime." We're now pulling into the parking lot and the kids have funny looks on their faces and we stop the car and say, "Guess what. We're not going to Long Beach. We're going here instead. Surprise!"
Robee, since he has no idea what this place is, asks if it has a pool. Felix starts screaming and saying, "Robee! This isn't just a pool! It's an indoor water park!!" And then he starts screaming and everyone is screaming and happy.
THAT was the best part of the weekend for me. I was excited to see them happy and excited. It was totally worth it to us.
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