Finding Direction: The Wind Vane Chronicles

Greg (England) chastized me in comment to yesterday’s post because I didn’t say more about the wonderful indoor/outdoor (we had no clue about the outdoor part until we got here) water park here at Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, Texas.

Well – let me forthwith correct that.

The 19 of us arrived, en masse, Monday afternoon, the last two straggling in about 5 p.m.  Tom & I were the first to get here – about 2:30 p.m. – and Tom had swim trunks at the ready, but by the time the last of the clan arrived, we decided it was about time to gather ourselves for our evening “adults only” dinner f0r six (see last post).  However . . . the remaining parties, i.e, all three of my children and all nine of the grandchildren here, went straight to their rooms, into swim gear and down to the indoor waterpark, with  numerous water slides, including one called the vortex (think tornado), the canyon slide, and one dropping from the four-stop tower at about a shuddering 85 degree angle (think straight down), round and round and into the pool below.

That was just a foretaste of good fun ahead.

Yesterday and today have been non-stop, water logged fun, aside from lost kids, who were fine in the end – much better than their frantic parents, grandma Dee & great-grandma Jean.

What has surprised me the most is that most of the gang time has been spent outdoors at the outdoor waterpark pools and slides area.  I mean – guys – yesterday HAD to have been about 105 degrees in the shade, no wind (and this is west Texas) and absolutely miserable, even in the shaded portion next to the building.  Of course, the inside water park wasn’t much better.  It was a bit cooler, but about 100% humidity.

But, hey – when you’re a kid – or a grown-up kid, what’s the problem, ya know?!

We’ve all been sleeping in, leisurely sauntering down to the water parks and various indoor places, having lunches on our own and gathering in the evenings.  Tom had his grandchildren, Julian & Veronica, here yesterday and we all gathered here at our end of the 3rd floor hallway about 7 p.m. last night, where Julian (nearly 17) serenaded us with a selection of violin pieces, including the “Ashokan Farewell,” from Ken Burns’ PBS program, “The Civil War.”

When that finished, we all caravaned to The Rainfall Forest in a nearby outlet mall for dinner, the 22 of us at two tables next to each other.  I have to tell you – we had 7 young children, and everyone one of them was on their best behavior (lots of photos to come) as the jungle animals loudly harrumped (the elephants), chattered (the birds) and chimpanzees snorted, while the tanks and tanks of fish watched.

The only sticking point was that the place made you go through the gift shop both on the way in and out!  Smart marketing, but I don’t think they landed a sale, despite the fact that we saw two grandkids cuddling three stuffedd animals on the way out, with more right behind them.

Today, our last day here, we have all gotten into high gear.  It has been a “tad” less hot and my mom and I ventured out to set in the admittedly hot shade by the outdoor pool to watch the goings on.  Tom brought a friend’s video camera and I learned enough to be able to shoot some video around, so hope to be able to share some here after we return home, hopefully, tomorrow evening.

Mom & Laura are driving back to Abilene in the morning, we are going home and I think the rest (my three children & families) are going to check out here at 11 a.m., keep their water park passes for the rest of the day, and then retire to Rebecca’s house, which is about 30-45 minutes away, for the rest of the day/night.  David & Mark will leave from there Friday morning to drive back to Virginia & Picayune.

This evening we are gathering in the outdoor veranda on the main level at 7 p.m. to take the group’s photos and eat pizza together.  Tom’s brother and nephew are visiting Dallas from Maryland, and they are joining us, as well, so this has just been the greatest family reunion EVER!!

More – much more – to come when we get back home.  Probably on Friday.

Please pray that we all have a safe trip home and back to reality.

Many blessings to you all today and this evening!  Dee

P.S.  I have been sitting in traction, but have not had to take a pain pill since Monday morning and have been feeling great, over all!  Praise God for His kindness and mercies upon me.