Great Wolf Lodge

Hi everyone

First of all it's October, and that means that hockey season has started. It is nice to be in a hockey town again, after five years in the Bellingham area, with no hockey to speak of. Here all the Flyers games are televised, and all are free, no pay-per-view like in Vancouver.

It also helps that the Flyers are playing great right now, and are the top of their division.

So now, back to the business at hand. In late September, Leeann, Wes and Cameron went with some friends to Great Wolf Lodge in the Pocono Mountains, about 2 hours from home (about the same distance from Bellingham to Seattle).

Great Wolf Lodge is a resort hotel with a water park and was designed with two objectives in mind: to be a joy for childen and to empty the parents' wallets as quickly and efficiently as possible. But it was a whole lot of fun for Leeann and me as well. We planned our trip to go when the kids had just gone back to school and before ski season had started. So the crowds had dispersed, reducing and/or eliminating lines for the rides.

This is a 1000 gallon bucket that fills and periodically empties.

Cameron got caught under this when it emptied. The water caught his swimsuit and pulled it down. He mooned about 20 people.

This ride can be thought of as a large toilet bowl. You shoot into it from one side, spin around a couple of times.....

Then you are flushed out down another pipe.

This is sort of like a waterslide roller coaster. You get on a 3 person rubber raft, and slide down onto conveyor belts which accelerate you up hills. You can catch a lot of air on this ride.

And this is Cameron snacking (again) with his friend Carter.

That's all for now. See you soon.