Pretty OK Wolf

Most years we go on some sort of epic vacation. This year, with my wife having mobility issues, not so much. We did go to family camp, and that actually somewhat spawned this little trip.

I always need to get my vacation picks in at the end of the year, and always try to get the week for that off. Well, at the end of last year I was told what week it would be, and I requested and got that week. A few months in, I was told it was actually going to be the week after that. Grrr.... I looked, and the only days that week that were still available were Tuesday through Thursday, so I requested those days. Friday is my normal swap day, so that was OK, and Saturdays are a special circumstance, and I was able to get that moved over a week, too. That left Monday, and I had a personal day I could use on that, so I did. Still had the week before off (except the Saturday in between the two) as well as around ten days in a row at the end of last month where I'd been thinking of going on a vacation. I was considering making up another post of a month plus of not working very much. Mostly it consisted of family camp, getting my wife wrenched on, and a fair bit of the recent work I've done on Scruffy.

But that week before family camp!!! It was right in the midst of a heat wave. I had the thought of getting a room near the beach and just enjoying the sea breezes, but we ended up going to the Great Wolf Lodge in Garden Grove!!! It's not cheap, and the rooms aren't anything much special, but they do have an indoor water park!!! See all our wolf ears??? The pricey lodgings come with a set of those, so, worth it, I guess.

There's my wife and the raccoon character, and me looking like a third wheel. Couldn't get the boy in on it. Except for the first shot, I didn't get any of the water park, so all the shots of it are stolen. They've got all the water park staples in there!!! Wave pool, lazy river (which I'd thought would be an inside and outside deal, but no), kiddy climbing fort with slides and a giant bucket that dumps every several minutes, racing slide, and various other slides.

Even if you're not able to check in early when you get there, they give you access to the water park starting early on. We got there, and headed in. Of course, my wife was in her wheelchair, and after we were there a few minutes, a crew member came by and offered to get her a water wheelchair!!! Rolled her into the wave pool, she got in the lazy river, and we rolled by the splashy fort.

One unique slide they have there is the Wolf Tail, where they put you in what looks like a teleportation chamber. Stand up, leaning against the back. They close the chamber. It has an amplified heartbeat going on. Then the bottom drops out, sending you straight down!!! Into a twist, then a splash down trough. The place seems to be geared to younger kids, so there was usually almost no wait to go on it. I did, several times!!!

All the slides are in the far corner, and there's an extended portion of the roof there to accommodate them. The tube slides and the raft slides actually go outside the building, then splash down back inside. All the tubes are enclosed, though.

The side by side racing slides also do something unique I've never seen before, they all start out in tubes that make a loop before going into the side by side.

One of my son's favorite things to do at water parks is the lazy river. Hard to mess up a lazy river, right??? Well, he wasn't such a fan of this one, it moves pretty swiftly, so I guess not lazy enough for him!!!

So what was the consensus on the place??? Well, you save money on sunscreen!!! First water park I've ever been to where I didn't feel broiled afterwards!!! It was much more comfortable than an outdoor one, being climate controlled, and not cold to where you'd be freezing after getting out of the water. Down side, you have to have a lot of chlorine in all that water, and being contained in there, after a while it feels like it's burning your airways, especially if you're climbing to the top of a slide.

Oh, and just found out that my niece is working there now. Good for her, they should have plenty of money for her!!!

After we stayed our two nights there, we went to the Orange County Fair. That was a lot of fun, too. Wouldn't have stayed as late as we did, but it turned out there was a monster truck competition that evening that we had to stay for!!!