Thursday, July 24, 2008

A waterful day at Noah's Ark

With only sun in the forecast and temperatures at a comfortable 80 degrees, our family decided to take it outdoors to Noah's Ark—America's largest water park.

My dad, brother, Erin, Lauren, and I road tripped to the Wisconsin Dells (about 80 miles from here) yesterday morning and staked our claim on two lounge chairs that merely served to hold our towels and shade our bags. We didn't waste any time getting our feet wet on our first attraction—Black Anaconda, the biggest watercoaster I've ever seen. It was amazing!

We spent the next eight hours at this awesome park that boasts 49 waterslides, a 4D "dive-in" theater (featuring SpongeBob—who else?—and plenty of special effects), huge wave pools, big tube rides, and the list goes on. I wish I could have taken tons of pictures because we had such a terrific time, but who wants to carry a camera around a water park? That said, I did take one shot of the girls in front of one of the wave pools when we first arrived. See how dry they are?


My favorite ride was Time Warp, billed as the country's largest bowl ride. John, the girls, and I climbed into a four-person, clover-shaped tube and descended into a steep, black tunnel that took a great drop. Centrifugal force then took over as we swirled around the strobe light-filled bowl and finally slid into the pool below. Erin screamed through the whole thing ("Mom!!") and it was a great rush.

Another favorite was The Plunge: side by side vertical-drop slides that you fly down head first. John and I got a little air on these at one point, though the girls (who weigh so much less!) didn't go quite as far or as fast as we did.

When we really wanted to get wet, an activity area had an eight-foot bucket that spills 800 gallons of water at once and has a 25-foot splash zone. The huge spray soaked us and was great, yet paled in comparison to the drenching we received standing on the bridge over the Flash Flood—a giant boat holding 20 people that takes a 50-foot drop into a pool, creating a massive wall of water 40 feet high. Talk about wet!

We left in time for a late supper at Culver's and by the time we got home the kids were completely exhausted. They konked out almost as soon as their heads hit their pillows, and Dad and I weren't far behind. All that sun and water really made for a memorable day and a highlight of our summer.

5 comments:

Lisa (aka) French said...

Wow what an amazing experience living in Costa Rica? May I ask for how long and why? I find it absolutely fascinating! I would love to live abroad ( lol) wait a minute I do kind of Canadian living in the states and in the South so yeah I guess it was a little culture shock! Thanks for visiting! Oh and you must be totally nuts because NOBODY can do the foot and 6 thing (lol) French;)

Justine said...

This sounds like it was a complete blast!!!!!!!!!!!! And 80 degrees? You've got to be kidding me. I'm moving to Wisconsin dammit!
I wish you could have taken pics of all the rides, but your descriptions were pretty darn good. Are you all exhausted today?

Justine :o )

Shelli said...

Woohoo--water parks!

Shelli said...

I just looked up that place online. It looks SO cool! Wish I could go. Hope you didn't see any North American Carpet Bellies. That's what Audrey and I have termed the men with large hairy bellies and backs who wear too-small swimsuits... scary

Lisa said...

You make me want to visit Wisconsin! I miss the north so much. Florida is not my style!!! The only part of Wisconsin I have ever experienced was Milwaukee and them the expressway from there to St. Paul Minnesota. It looks like you are all loving your summer vaca back in the states.