Waterblogged

Day three at the Great Wolf Lodge water park, resort, etc..

A real eyesore to the good residents of Traverse City when it was built several years ago. In all of our travels to and fro through the city, we always wondered about what it was like inside it's formidable, synthetic log walls. This year we decided to check it out for daughter's 8th Birthday.

It is a small city within itself. I don't know how many rooms; but a lot! The lodging is so-so and the food is just OK, but what they do know how to do is keep 4000 screaming little kids in wet bathing suits totally entertained! The one thing that I give then extra-credit for is friendliness and attentiveness.

The waterpark is about two acres under one roof, with five waterslides, three pools, a waterfort, and a flowing river. Oh, and the main attraction is a 1000 gallon barrel of water three stories up, which dumps down on willing victims every five minutes! We've spent about 15 hours in the water so far, and will probably get another couple of hours in before check-out tomorrow. It's a ton of fun with a little kid to share it with.

Now the down side. My skin is just about gone from the super-chlorinated water designed to defeat any kind of germ or parasite. My eyes have turned red, and no amount of Visine can correct it. One ear has about 20% hearing through the waterplug. There's little skin left on my feet after wading and sloshing along the abrasive walls in every water attraction. And my body is just plain sore from crashing water tubes, climbing wet stairs, and body-slamming the bottoms of these kid-shallow water courses. Not to mention being pummeled by the aforementioned thousand-gallons of water dropped on my head. It hammers you with such force that I quickly learned to hang on to my swim trunks to keep them from being washed down to my ankles!

Oh well. She's only eight once and she's having a water-fest she'll never forget.

I will heal.