Day 8 - Little Diamond KOA

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Submitted by brad on
He Said:Happy Fourth of July! In what's become our usual routine we had breakfast then hit the family lodge for ping pong, pool, and the other kind of pool. There were people at OUR ping pong table and even worse, they were bad! It pained us to watch, but eventually they gave up. There was a tile craft today, making a tic tac toe board out of clay. We hung out at the pool until everyone was done then hit the cabin for lunch. Had a great conversation with the kids about patriotism and then we headed in to town, ostensibly to get groceries although we never made it. We crossed into Idaho to check out Triple Play, where the kids did one of those indoor rope climbing places. Ryan is an inch too short for the full one but too old for the little one, so he tired of it fast. After that we all tried laser tag. Different rules at this one. They had home bases you had to protect/defend as a team and your gun and shields periodically ran out, forcing you to go back to a recharge station. I found it frustrating. I like our simpler run'n'gun myself. I don't know why it would exist but there was a row of a good dozen or so Tesla charging stations in the far end of the Golden Corral Buffet parking lot in Athol, Idaho. It looks sad and abandoned, with garbage blowing by like tumbleweeds. I want to know what the reasoning was behind that. Seems like an odd spot to go all in on a marching electronic charging station hub. Once again, I have to wonder aloud how people get so fat? I know it's a touchy subject. I know not everyone is a size 0, love the body you're in, maintain a healthy body image and so on, but a kid should not have a bigger gut than me. It's just sad. Especially given a kids metabolism, how much unnecessary junk must they be ingesting. Half the people at that restaurant couldn't fit into a single chair. There's a difference between being 20-30lbs overweight and 200-300lbs. There's gotta be a point halfway to that where a person would stop and go "whoa". I digress. I don't see them driving Teslas, lets put it that way. After that we decided to take advantage of the Silverwood theme park evening admission rates, since we were already in the neighbourhood and it was the Fourth of July. The kids' main comment upon arriving was "this looks like it's trying to be Disneyland. Can they sue?" (I rant enough to my kids about things like that that I guess it's sunk in - Sorry kids!) It was very similar to the main entrance of Disneyland. Brick, flowers and trees, little shops, music playing and a train station. The rest of the park was more midway than theme park. The only ride we really did was one of those wild rapid raft ones where we got absolutely soaked. The family behind us in line was from Leduc, because "Edmonton seemed too big". There was a spot on the street where people could drop a quarter in and set off a water cannon that soaked people. We waited in that line probably an hour, and this one dude was parked there the whole time. Baggy jeans, white shirt, I'm gonna guess early thirties, backwards ballcap and teeth that were way too white for his face. I don't know why he loved it so much, but he was plugging that thing like it was a slot machine. Kept laughing, talking to anyone who was passing by, pointing, chuckling. It looked like it was the best thing in the world. Anyway. The kids did some other rides, a mini tower drop and the like. In fairness, the midway did not seem like a rip off. $5 for 3 tried, many of them with guaranteed prizes, and they weren't tattoos or dollar store toys. The kids all won stuffed animals that turn into pillows, things that I would consider to be worth at least $5. The fireworks were loud and incredible. Maybe it's just because we were so much closer than on Canada Day, but they were loud and they shot up in the air higher than I could crane my neck. The kids were suitably impressed. We stayed until about 10:30, followed by another 45 minutes or so filing out of the park and the parking lot. Got back to the cabin just after midnight. All in all, a nice day; and now we don't need to go out tomorrow. G bought a cool necklace pair, one for her, one for Shannon. I'm trying to be pretty judicious in my photos this trip, but I'll add a few to facebook. She Said:Well, Brad covered everything. Yup, that's it.