2007 Summer Vacation pt. 2

JUST SAY NO TO DRUGS

The novelty of waffles and waffle iron had kind of worn off by this time but we hung in there and ate our misshapen waffles cheerily. The kids had begged to start the day with more swimming but we told them that this was the day for Boulder Beach -- Silverwood's water park.

I really want to commend Silverwood for being creative in keeping kids off of drugs. I say this because they sure have come up with clever positions for teens to take during these hot summer months instead of hanging out in the Safeway parking lot and listening to hits of the 70's, 80's & 90's which is piped out of the store speakers, while trying to score a six pack of beer. Paid positions like the Locker Key Boy (LKB). See, you rent lockers at Boulder Beach for $5. They give you a bracelet to wear. Then you show your bracelet to the LKB on duty. The LKB walks you to your locker, unlocks it for you, and hopefully, you can figure out the rest. If you can't, the LKB will be more than happy to explain how to lock your locker. Just be sure to show him your bracelet.

Most of you have seen my husband and know that he is 6'9. These locker geniuses at Silverwood gave him a locker closest to the floor. Does this make any sense at all? No. But, since they have LKB's, clearly they're not looking for logic much. Many times, there were not enough LKB's to be found and you just had to grab one from across the locker room and drag him over to your locker. To their credit, they never once huffed or complained or said, "that's not my sector..." They just walked over and unlocked our locker for us. Good on them.

WATER FUN & THE QUEST FOR FOOD

The water park was the most fun of all. It being Saturday, the crowds were fierce, but we spent a great deal of time in the wave pools, Polliwog Park and Toddler Springs so we didn't have a lot of line waiting. Well, sort of.

We decided to splurge and buy lunch at the park. A prime table had opened up in the eating area so I sat and fed the baby. My husband got in line and waited. And waited. And waited. After about an hour, in which 2 families had sat beside me, eaten their food and left, my family finally returned with enough fried food to kill even a marathoner. My husband is incredibly intolerant of lines, but he did okay. I was proud of him after it all. He didn't whine too much but he overcompensated on the food because there was no way he was going to wait back in that line again. I was also proud of the kids. They didn't complain too much and didn't say the dreaded, "I'm hungry," over and over again, when really, we couldn't do anything about it. We did decide, however, that we would never, ever, on any future trip to Silverwood, buy food from the park. It was overpriced, over greasy, overly long waited for, fried food. What's the point? The only thing that kept us going was the thought of returning to Cafe Chulo's at the end of the day. It shone like a beacon for us in the distance. Fresh salads and roasted meats. Tasty fish tacos. Yum.

The older kids and I went on the Avalanche Mountain ride which was an absolute blast! My 6 year old laughed like a maniac the entire way down and both kids directly disobeyed my order to remain calm and not scream. (I was only kidding.) It was so much fun that hubby and the boy went for a second time. The girls and I spent a lot of time in the toddler springs and polliwog place which was a blast while the boys went to tackle the large water slides.

THE JERK AT POLLIWOG PLACE

Cool thing about Polliwog Place is that they have sprayers and hoses that you can blast perfect strangers. It's all in fun and people are generally pretty cool about it. I was holding the 2 year old to walk her up to the little slide when some jerk just started blasting me in the back. Usually, I'm pretty game, but I was walking the baby!!! I blocked her from the blast with my back but this jerk was relentless. When we finally made it down the slide, and I got the baby out of range, I turned back to deliver a scathing evil eye, only to realize it was my darling husband manning the hose. He did catch the evil eye, but it only made him laugh harder.

After we had dried off, we went back to the dry part of the park so the girls and I could explore the Garfield tree house (pretty cool) and the boys could get to the roller coaster they had missed the previous day. Turns out they waited extra long so they could be in the absolute first car. They had a great time. While they did the big roller coaster, the girls and I went on the tiny roller coaster. It went around part of the tree house 8 times. I know it was 8 times because the baby decided that it was too boring after the 5th revolution and tried to climb out. Thankfully, the coaster went so slow, she barely would have skinned a knee but I held onto her tightly anyway.

Cafe Chulo's hours are open until 10pm on Saturdays so when we pulled up at 9:30pm and saw the lights out, we were crestfallen. We went to the drive through and they said that it was so dead, they decided to close up early. What is wrong with the people in Coeur D'Alene? This is AWESOME Mexican food. Support this restaurant! But they were so great, they made up 4 fish tacos for us and we ate it in front of the Safeway while listening to the hits from the 70's, 80's & 90's.

More to come.