From right to left, this was me, my best friend Mary, Pixie, Princess and Mary’s son (whom I call Spud Boy!) yesterday at Water Country, a ginormous water park that is the only amusement park I will willing attend. In general, I despise amusement parks; the long lines, the crowds, the over-priced greasy food, the stomach-churning rides, the HEAT! I much prefer museums, zoos, and gardens; places where I can learn things and I don’t have to stand in line or deal with a ton of cranky sweaty people who are pissed off because they paid WAAAAAAAAY too much money to get into the place and now their favorite ride is broken down.
And of course, I hate amusement parks because I used to work at one when I was a lowly teen. The only thing worse than going to an amusement park is working in one. Trust me on this.
But Water Country is different, mainly because it has water, which helps with the whole sweaty-heat problem. And also because I’ve yet to go there when it’s really crowded. It’s big, with plenty of things to do that don’t involve standing in line (though you can stand in some lines if you want to). Oh, and Water Country has no stomach churning puke-mixing rides. It does have a number of slides that make the Winter Olympics slalom look like a ride in the park, but that’s different. Those slides don’t totally screw with my inner ear and thus make me want to toss all my cookies when I get off. (I did enough tossing of cookies week before last, thanks.)
So Mary, the kids and I hit Water Country today and we had a great time. We started at the wave pool then made our way around to various play areas. Pixie is scared of anything new these days, and didn’t want to set foot in the water, so I had to make her, but once she was in she was fine. After about 2 1/2 hours of splashing around, we hit everybody’s favorite attraction, the Hubba-Hubba Highway, which is basically a long winding course of swift moving current that people float along in. We all strapped into life jackets and just went with the flow. It was very relaxing, and it made me think this is pretty much how I’d like the rest of summer to be – just go with the flow and relax. We’ll see if that happens.
There will probably be more of these “snapshots of summer” cartoons. I know everybody likes the funny stuff, but the girls are at an age where summer is becoming interesting and memorable, and I’d like to capture some of those moments while I can. Hope you’ll all indulge me when these cartoons turn up.
