For Memorial Day weekend we decided to remember those who had served by taking the boys to the Great Wolf Lodge. We couldn’t go on the Saturday as Harry had to go to Evan’s birthday party. Evan has moved up to Bellevue not that long ago from Texas. Clearly they haven’t left their Texan beliefs behind as Evan’s dad was most surprised that I was comfortable wearing a pink t-shirt!
After waking up early-ish on the Sunday morning, we packed the car and set off down the I-5, past Olympia to the Great Wolf Lodge. It was only about an hour and 40 minutes away but it felt a long time because two little boys were in a “non-stop talking about absolutely nothing” mood in the back of the car! Once we arrived we checked in but our room wasn’t ready so as we were absolutely starving we went to eat before heading to the water park. We had intended to have a reasonably light lunch and just ordered some nachos however we were presented with a pile of nachos like no other!
We munched our way through as many as we could and then got changed into our swimmers (not a pretty sight!) and headed into the park. I’d expected the Lodge to be like Center Parcs and it sort of was except the water park was much bigger and better but it didn’t have any of the non water park activities. After the boys got used to the noise and water round the kids pools, Fort McKenzie and some smaller water slides we convinced Toby that going down River Canyon Run was a good idea. It took quite a bit of convincing (and a $10 bribe) to persuade Toby but in the end he gave in and we started the climb up the stairs to the top of the ride.
At the top, a large four person inflatable raft thing arrives and we all climbed in. While I was expecting to go reasonably fast I wasn’t quite prepared for what followed. And if I was quite prepared, I think it is fair to say that Toby had no idea what he’d let himself in for. We shot down the big tube on our inflatable, whizzing up the sides, with Tracy squealing, Harry clinging onto the sides for dear life and Toby looking like he wasn’t sure whether to laugh, scream or cry. I grabbed hold of him as I feared it was the latter and clung on to him as I think he was on the verge of falling out as we shot round all the corners and banks! After what was probably no more than 30 seconds we landed in the pool at the bottom, coming to a very sudden halt. Unfortunately for Harry it was a bit to sudden a halt as I wasn’t expecting it and ended up slipping across the raft and crashing into him. Poor Harry – he certainly knew what had hit him!
Surprisingly Toby didn’t cry at the bottom – he just laughed – but he also made it quite clear he wasn’t going down it again! We then went into the giant wave pool and then back to the kids area to relax on smaller slides. It was then time to get out and find our room. We relaxed for a short while before we set off to the games area and Toby and Harry spent much more that $10 playing on slot machines, grabber toys and all sorts of other money wasting things in order to win tokens to exchange for tat! Then it was time for dinner although why I ordered a big steak sandwich I have no idea – I was still full from the nachos and some cookies which I had accidentally eaten in the room!
With dinner partially consumed and some cocktails easily taken care of it was back to the pool. I couldn’t go back in as I felt like I had got half a tonne of bricks in my belly and so could do nothing except lie on a lounger feeling sorry for myself! Tracy, Harry and Toby spent another hour or so going down the slides (small ones) and playing in the pool.
At 9pm the water park closed so it was time to eat ice-cream – but only if your name was Harry or Toby. After demolishing that it was back to the room and a nice nights sleep.
The bank holiday Monday started with some over tired tantrums (from the children) and then more time in the pool. No more scary slides, just some fun in the wave pool, swimming pool and Fort McKenzie with it’s big splashing bucket of water:
httpv://youtu.be/MfyQbJp4HS8
We left the pool behind, squeezed a little more food into our tums, went back to the games center and won enough tokens to exchange them for an green angry bird basketball before setting off for home.
The Great Wolf Lodge was fun. We shall be heading back there again and we will try to convince Toby to go down the River Canyon Run again – I think it will take more than $10 to convince him next time!
