Aquatica...

... Amazing!

Day Seven...

We have long been anticipating our trip to Aquatica... like since the day SeaWorld announced it was being built! Sometimes when you set your hopes too high, you are disappointed. We were not disappointed today!

It's hard to know where to begin. The slides were incredible... from the little kid slides... to the bigger kid slides... to the racing mat slide... to the tube slides... to the funnel slide... to the family raft slides... to "Dolphin Plunge", Aquatica's signature slide that actually goes through a dolphin habitat! Just... Wow! I actually rode that one twice, because the first time the dolphins weren't swimming near me, so I didn't see them. The second time I saw one, and it was just awesome!


Over the course of this trip, our kids have really discovered a love for pools in general... and specifically for wave pools! Here they are, having a blast:


One of my favorite parts of the day was when I took Caleb down all of the "big" kiddie slides! He had so much fun and was very animated. He actually stopped to tell a stranger that he got wet, which cracked me up!

We had one scary incident while riding "Roa's Rapids", an incredible action river in which no tubes are allowed! The current is very strong, and as we went to get on, Grace got scared and held back. I tried to wait for her, but I was holding Ian, and even if I hadn't been, there was simply no possible way to swim against this current... so down the river Ian and I flew... and so did Phil and Caleb, because they got in before us! The only thing I could do was to scream, "WAIT HERE" to Grace (and Seth, by the way, who wouldn't come without her, which I found surprising... but I was rather proud of him nonetheless...), and I made eye contact with a life guard who I saw move their way. But we really didn't know if we would find them there or not until we rode the entire river! Thankfully, Uncle Brad, Aunt Sheri, and Abby were in the river (although we didn't know it) and came out and found Seth and Grace long before we got around to them! Uncle Brad even took Seth into the river to try to find us. In the end, Grace got a pretty good chewing out, and then we all managed to catch the current (which I am now fondly referring to as the E.A.C... if you haven't found Nemo, that won't make any sense). I have some video footage to upload, but blogger is giving me trouble tonight, so hopefully I'll be able to put it up sometime tomorrow...

"Loggerhead Lane", the lazy river, was pretty good, too. It went through a small fish grotto and the Commerson Dolphin exhibit. Ian kept telling me that he needed "more fishies"... a phrase we've heard a lot this past week! Here are a couple of pics. of us riding the river. The one of Ian with the fish is my favorite picture of the day:



Aquatica is... by far... the best waterpark I have ever visited! And that's saying a lot! By the way, I counted up all of the water parks our kids have been to, and it comes to ten! I then told them that I didn't go to a water park until I was 13 years old, to which Seth replied, "Mom, when you were thirteen, did you even know what water was?" Of course I told him no... that when I was born, all there was on the Earth was dirt... hehehe... Oh, comic relief for a very tired Mommy!

Steve, Nancy, Elizabeth, and Audrey arrived tonight, and we're off to the rental house tomorrow for the next week of our trip! Disney, here we come!

Lisa