A trip to Wild Waves

[elfs]

The girls contemplate the Timberhawk

Saturday, I had my final chance to take Yamaraashi-chan out to Wild Waves, the local water theme park, so we packed up the kids and Lisa and drove out that way. I started the day out in something of a snit; I just had that feeling that I was going to be spending most of the day running interference between the big sister and the little one. Omaha, sadly, couldn't make it as she had something official to attend that afternoon.

And indeed, the moment we got there Kouryou-chan disappeared. We found her in the arcade. She'd run off to look at the Oooh, shiny, leaving the rest of us to freak out and wonder when we were gonna get the phone call from lost & found. Fortunately, she did show up.

We did the dry rides first, as the weather was still cool, and the wet rides afterwards. Kouryou-chan and Lisa went to the more sedate rides while Yamaraashi-chan and I went upside-down.

This was supposed to have been Yamaraashi-chan's big get together with her friends before school started, but plans fell through and only one boy made it. I had made it clear to her that I would not be chaperoning or taking responsibility for any of her friends if they did show up and they would need their own chaperones. I swear, that kid doesn't have a conniving bone in her body; Wild Waves doesn't have an age limit and there's nothing I could do to stop any of her friends' parents from just dropping off their kid, if they were so inclined. It took her forever to understand out that "My dad says it's okay" and "My dad says he can't stop you from coming" are two different conditions.

I would have thought that the most remarkable sight of the day was the college-aged man I encountered on my way toward the lockers with a huge Invisible Pink Unicorn tattoo across one pectoral. I may have gotten subculture points for that one, but the most remarkable sight was two men from completely different subcultures: one, a man in his late 20s to early 30s with a huge tattoo across his chest, from shoulder to shoulder, right below the line where it would have been covered up with clothing, in a pseudo-medieval type, reading "Only God Can Judge Me." Right behind him, in another line waiting for a different water slide, was a young man with two companions, college-aged, whose tattoo had the same layout and type, reading, "There Is No God."

Eventually, I mellowed out. It's hard to stay grumpy with warm water and giggly children, and soon I was enjoying my day just as much as the rest of them. To our pleasant surprise, Omaha showed up; her event had been cancelled, and a friend had said, "You look stressed out. Let me drive you down and give you a chance to be with you family." Her friend was very perceptive.

All good things, yadda yadda. We were done. We'd had our day. After we got dressed, the girls insisted on one more ride on the roller-coaster, so while Omaha and Lisa waited, I walked the girls up the hill all the way back to the other end of the park for one last ride, then back. We ate elephant ears (or was that funnel cake?), and headed out.

I was mostly baked by the time we got back to the car; the spray-on sunscreen we'd had just doesn't work very well.

Comments

[icebluenothing.livejournal.com]

"Only God Can Judge Me." [....] "There Is No God."

How awesome would it have been to have both these tattoos on the *same person?* I'm thinking chest and back.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Sounds like the kind of character you'd write about.

[gromm.livejournal.com]

the spray-on sunscreen we'd had just doesn't work very well.

I recommend the SPF 60 waterbabies stuff from.... oh that brand with the baby getting her diaper ripped off.

Not only have I not gotten a sunburn this year, I'm barely even tanned. And it's not for lack of trying either - two trips to Wreck Beach, the Pride Parade, and every spare Sunday at the pool would normally bake me like a turkey. Instead, the kid has more tan than I do.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

The spray-on stuff needs to be reapplied an awful lot. Found that out the hard way.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Do you think that's because they had to seriously thin it to make it go through the sprayer without clogging?

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

It's got to be. I like the Neutrogena stuff myself--it doesn't smell like sunblock and it works much better than the spray-on, doesn't blow away in the wind while you're trying to apply it, etc. I suppose one could test by applying heavier layers, or more layers, of the spray-on but it won't be me as I have now discovered that the smell gives me a headache.