He Said:
Woo! Day 2! It's only just started but it's going to be EPIC! We've already spent an hour questing and now were chomping at the bit to move on to the next activity. Chomping. At. The. Bit. Updates later.
Well, Shannon beat me to this one but I'm going to plow ahead anyway, because I'm in America and dammit - that's what we do. Today was a full on lodge day. We quested. G, M and S did the rope quest. Shannon, with her relatively recent height issues, took the plunge and it was awesome. Good for her. Our room happened to be directly across from it, enabling me to get some good video and bring some of that that much needed 'creepy guy with the camera' vibe to this hotel.
I also did a much smaller scale achievement, going down the waterslide with Mara. I don't know why I have such an aversion to them. They just don't interest me and it seems like there's no upside. But everyone else was busy and Mara wanted to go, and I am Dad. Couldn't say no. It was fine, though. I could've gone again.
We also did the arcade, where I was on fire. I got a giant great wolf lodge ball. It's cloth wrapped around a giant rubber ball, beach-ball size I'd say. Then a whale unicorn. Then a minion. Then another whale unicorn. I could not lose! Except when I did. Ryan wanted a Pokemon and that was the most rigged claw there. Super loose hook. Still. Whatever Dadness I lost on my reluctance to waterslide, I regained big time with my claw ability.
We quested, we roped, we slid, we games. All in all a great day. Oh, and we had the BIGGEST Mexican meal ever. At the end I ordered three churros for the kids, which turned out to be three plates of massive dessert.
She Said:So after a bit of Questing I decided to try some exposure therapy to overcome my fear of heights on the Rope Adventure. There are 3 levels, each with various combinations of tight rope, wobbly balance beam and zip lines to traverse around. To get back to earth from the third level you have to rappel. I figured I would be OK with that last bit because of all the zip lines I would have completed by the time I got there. I was NOT OK WITH IT! The zip lines weren't so bad because you didn't have to step off a platform. You could just sit down in your harness and take a ride across the chasm. At the top of the third level platform you could not just sit down. You had to step off. They deliberately did it that way to freak you out. There was no tension in the line. The lady (well, 18 year old) explained to me that the speed from your free fall causes the magnets to engage and then you are lowered down at a smooth and slower pace. This information did not make me feel better. My life depended on magnets. For some reason I had no problem allowing my baby girls to take the plunge. My baby girls who were yelling at me from the waiting area "Come on Mom - you can do it! 3....2.....1 GO!" It's such a stupid irrational thing. I know I'm safe - it's no worse than the 20 minutes of rope maze that I've already completed. My rational brain can not overcome my guttural instinct to be terrified. Palms sweating, heart pounding out of my chest, dizziness from the hyperventilating, knees weakening ....... The second time I heard the girls' count-down I forced myself to go. My legs didn't listen. I quickly stepped to the edge but instead of taking the next step off the edge my legs decided to crouch. The one thing the lady told me I shouldn't do because I could bang my head on the platform. So she had to push me off from my squat position. Brad took video - you will see. Because it took me about 6 minutes to gather the courage and because my daughters were screaming at me - I got applause from the crowd as I rappelled. My kids ran over to congratulate me with hugs but I felt I needed to shake all the nerves away so I just kept walking and shaking my hands as if my arms were covered in spider webs. I just wanted to get it off me. The icky feeling of irrational fear. Blech!
After lunch we hit the water park. No more blood and scrapes. My brave kids wanted to do everything available including the Tornado! It was very cool. It's a waterslide that you take in a 4 person inflatable raft type thing. I sat across from Gillian and Mara and Ryan sat across from each other. I was riding backwards and had no idea what to expect because I didn't investigate the layout of the slide before climbing the stairs. It's pitch black inside the first 5 seconds of the slide. Just a typical waterslide tube. Then it opens up into this chute - kinda like a snowboard half-pipe. So it feels like a freefall at first. Then you go way up on one side - then free fall - then way up the other side etc. Quite thrilling! Again! Again! Again! So happy that my kids enjoyed it.
Supper at a very good Mexican restaurant up the street from the hotel. Serving sizes were HUUUUGE and there were free nachos and terrific salsa as the appetizer which had filled us up so none of us ate more than half of our meal. Gillian loved the chicken soup she ordered and wanted to come back to have more of it for breakfast the next day. We ordered 3 churros for the kids for dessert, expecting to get three churros and we could walk out with them in the kids' hands. Nope! We got three plates heaping with cut up churros, ice cream, mounds of whipped cream and chocolate sauce draped over all of it. We could have ordered just 1 and shared it as a family and still not eaten all of it. I feel like the owner (who was our waiter) could have warned us about that. Oh well. They were the best churros I ever had. Made fresh when we ordered them.
Oh, somewhere in there we also did more arcade. Brad is a master at claw machines so we have 4 new stuffies and a large basketball. I was hoping the basketball would have a valve so we could deflate it. It does not. Sorry Phil! We no longer have room to drive you home from Vancouver on Monday.