I think this first day of fall was just perfect for some
water park fun at Aquatica.
So, we actually have this recurring theme in our lives where
I plan every detail of our vacations and then forget to bring beach
towels. On more than one occasion, this
has ended with a quick run to Wal-Mart and new towels for everybody. This may have happened today.
Even with the extra stop on the way, we arrived at Aquatica
as the park opened and proceeded to cram every last thing we wanted to do into
the next seven hours!
We started out on Whanau Way, a multi-rider tube slide,
where I learned that Miah will let go
of the tube if water gets in her eyes and she feels the need to see. You know, just in case I needed to have a
heart attack at 10:00 in the morning!
After some very specific instructions about how the better plan, in the
future, might be to close her eyes; our day got a little less eventful.
There are just so many good rides at Aquatica. I think my favorite slide is Tassie's
Twisters, which you actually have to access through the Loggerhead Lane lazy
river. After riding the slide twice, we
were feeling so relaxed that we just kept circling the river a ridiculous
number of times. Whatever. This is vacation:
Caleb on Tassie's Twisters (apparently he, also, has no need
for hanging on to the tube):
I got a pretty good shot of Phil, Seth, Grace, and Caleb
coming down Walhalla Wave. This slide is
just fantastic!
However, Ian and Miah thought one trip was enough, so they
ended up spending a lot of time sitting and waiting and eventually talked me
into taking them over to Walkabout Waters, one of those kids' water play areas
that drips continually and includes a bucket that dumps 450 gallons of water on
your head every two minutes, while Grace and Caleb rode the Taumata Racer. The truth is, I should have gone with the
"big kids", because three minutes of having no idea where Ian was...
not pretty. Of course, he was fine. He just got a little turned around on his way
to the slide where Miah and I were waiting... impatiently... in near panic
attack mode... with chlorine soaking my contact lenses... Splitting up is just generally a bad idea.
I did enjoy the other children's play area, Kata's Kookaburra
Cove, with Ian and Miah, immensely. I
think my oldest three children were sleeping in the sand while we adventured
here...
Oh wait, there's one of them, now:
A quick trip to Cutback Cove... Yay for wave pools... I mean... if they weren't terrifying... I'm pretty sure no one counts to five as
proficiently as I do...
And then we were on our way to Roa's Rapids, which is the
best action river ever. And we didn't
even lose any of our kids in it this time around. This is a marked improvement over our trip in 2008.
Undoubtedly the happiest moment of the day. Pictures don't lie, especially when you take
them by accident:
Dolphin Plunge was less than exciting, since we didn't see
any dolphins on our rides. Grace made
two attempts, but Caleb and I gave up after both of us inhaled way too much
water on the first try.
I'm not exactly sure where to put this one, but I think it pretty much sums up how Seth felt about Aquatica, today. It must be hard to be fifteen:
In retrospect, it sounds kind of crazy, but I loved this
day. This is real life, friends...
L.
Pictures Taken Today: 217
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