I have been feeling so restless lately, maybe its just from the end of summer break, but I have a constant urge to go, go, go! See new things, have new adventures. Anything but the normal daily routine. And with almost two months before our next mini-vacation I have had to resort to nearby weekend destinations. So I suggested a Saturday outing to Water World in Denver. We had loved Blizzard Beach, and Water World is one of the biggest water parks in the US. And I had never been, so it seemed like a perfect diversion for the weekend! It was supposed to be a hot day in Denver, with only a small chance of storms. Even better.

We got going plenty early Saturday morning, and made an out-of-the way trip to Chick-fil-a. Then we hit the highway. The drive was uneventful as usual. Lily watched Dora Fairy-tale Land on the iPod for about the 40th time, and we stopped somewhere for fuel. And then straight on the WW! It was still about 20 minutes until opening time when we pulled in, but by the time we got up to the line they were starting to let people in to the ticket counter area.I got our tickets, and purchased “Splash Cash” cards for Brian and I so we wouldn’t have to go back to the locker for wallets every time we wanted something to eat or drink. After a short line at the turnstiles, we were in! Getting a locker was a bit more of an ordeal than I would have liked, but soon enough we were all sun-screened and ready to go. After getting burned at Blizzard Beach I wasn’t taking any chances and decided to wear my shirt over my swimming suit today. No more sunburned shoulders for me! On the way in we had passed Wally World, and Lily wanted to do that first.

Wally World is an area for younger kids, with several small slides and waterfalls. Lily played there for quite a while before deciding to go on to one of the bigger attractions. I knew the lines would only get longer as the day progressed and was hoping to beat some of the rush since we were there early. I had brought my old camera in its water proof case to record the day’s adventure, I have gotten so spoiled to my new G9 but a non-waterproof camera is pretty useless at a waterpark.

So it was on to “Lost River of the Pharaohs”, a family tube ride (similar to Teamboat Springs @ BB) There was a short line to pick up our 4-person tube, and then we had to haul it up a rather long hill to get to the loading bay! That tube felt pretty heavy by the end. We loaded and were off!The first part of the ride was pretty typical rafting type stuff, dips and curves, and swooshes up the side of the slide. Then we came to the Pyramid, where there was mist pouring out! Once inside, it actually felt very Disney-world-ish. We were still in the raft of course, but now we were slowly meandering our way through a very dark and realistic looking Pharoh’s tomb! Not the kind of ride I was used to getting at an ordinary water park! Nice to see that someone else has figured out that there is more to a cool ride than just going fast. Although that’s fun too :)Well we finally picked up speed and came hurtling out of the Pyramid. Lily had been a little scared during parts, but liked the part where she saw the “king”.

There were a couple of other themed tube ride in that part of the park, though we had some trouble finding them. It turned out we needed to go around the Thunder Bay Wave pool. Brian and Lily thought we might as well go in for a quick dip on the way around…

Thunder Bay is not a typical wave pool – it stores up energy for several minutes then releases one gigantic wave! I followed them in as best I could, though they were a little ways ahead of me and with it so crowded (and bright!) I couldn’t always keep them in sight. It was only a minute or so before it came. We were a ways back in the pool, so it took what seemed like a long time for the wave to reach us. I was just standing there snapping pictures, noticing a tube filled with girls right in front of me…and had the thought that the wave looked like a wall of water filled with bodies.

And then it hit me (figuratively, at this moment.) That wall of bodies was headed straight for me! The wave was well over my head and not slowing down a bit! And it broke just a little bit in front of me… what followed next was a moment of shear terror, though I didn’t have much time to absorb the thought before the wall hit me (for real).

The next few terrifying moments went by in a blur. The tube of girls in front of me was picked up by the wave and smashed into me like a semi-truck running over a fly. I was vaguely aware of something smacking my head and then being under water. Tossed and turned, pushed, kicked, bumped along, hitting the floor, it was all happening so fast I couldn’t even keep my bearings about which way was up, only that I was still under water and moving very quickly. When I finally tried to surface I found another tube, (or person, not sure which) on top of me and had a brief panic that I was trapped. Eventually things calmed down enough to get my head above water, and there were a few moments of utter confusion. I was so disoriented by now I couldn’t figure out where I was in the pool. And where were Brian and Lily??? I knew that had Lily been with me there was no way I could have held on to her through all that. Had the same thing happened to Brian? Was she now lost in the pool somewhere? Fortunately, within seconds I saw them walking towards me, looking mostly unfazed, but clearly having been recently dunked!

When Brian saw the size of the wave, and realized that it was going to break right where they were, he had clutched Lily to his chest and held her as tight as could. Fortunately he didn’t get waylaid by any shore-bound tubes and had managed to stay on his feet while the wave went over their heads. He too experienced the moment of terror right before it hit, though! Later we were shocked to see that one of the pictures I snapped had him in it picking Lily up split-seconds before the wave hit! Perhaps this was not the wave pool for little ones… time to move on for sure! And be grateful that we were all still in one piece, though my arm was very sore from being nailed by a foot, head, who knows…and I later realized that I had been wearing my sunglasses when I went in the pool. Needless to say they were not still with me when I left.

We headed on over the “Voyage to the Center of the Earth” tube ride. It had a very long wait but since we were here we though we might as well go ahead and do it. The line was in a covered building so at least we were out of the sun. It was getting very toasty outside! Finally we got to the front, and picked up our tube for another long climb. There was a photographer at the top, and we got our picture made in front of the waterfall!

The ride itself is very similar to “Pharohs” except that it has a dinosaur theme. Lily was more scared on this one even, but said she really liked the part where we got to see the “plant-eating dinosaurs”. They really do some cosmic rides here! Taking lessons from Disney indeed…After a quick potty break we went to “Storm” which was right next to”Voyage”. The line was much shorter, but another climb up the hill with that tube! You definitely get a work out here. “Storm” was a lot of fun, most of it is in a completely dark tube, very similar to the other raft rides except you can’t see anything! Lily kept her eyes closed the whole time, not like it mattered. She always seems a little scared, but we can tell afterwards from the way she talks about it that she really was having a good time.

Well it was time for lunch, so we went back towards the entrance and splitup to find food. Brian found a nice spot in the grass under a tree to eat, and after scarfing down our food we were ready to go again. We headed over to River Country for some more rafting fun!

The line for the “Cimarron and Thunder Rivers” wasn’t too long, but moved rather slowly. Another raft, another hill. ‘Nough said. It was a fun one though, and there was another photographer there so we got another picture. The exit was right next to the tube pick up for the “Ragin’Colorado River” so we did that one too. Ditto to everything about the last ride!

By now we were ready for something a little more relaxing so we headed over to Calypso Cove, a water play area for kids. This ended up being one of Lily’s favorite parts of the day. There was a large structure with several slides coming off, one of which Lily absolutely loved. She must have gone down it a dozen times! At some point we took a break for some gatorade at the nearby Cafe, and me and Lily shared a Brownie. The afternoon was slipping away, and Lily finally decided she wanted to go to the Normal Wave pool (not the crazy one) before it was time to go.

While Brian and Lily headed in, I went to pick up the pictures we had gotten taken earlier. Once those were back in the locker, I joined them in the pool for a while before we went back to Wally World. The chance of storms had held off so far, but some dark clouds moved in, cooling it off dramatically. Almost too much sometimes! But a nice change still.

Wally World was another one of Lily’s favorites. It consists of three levels, with a slide going from top to bottom, one going from the top to the middle, and one going from the middle to the bottom.As well as stairs connecting all the levels and a couple of waterfalls. The water all starts at the top and flows toward the bottom any way it can – over waterfalls, down slides, down stairs, it just goes. Lily spent most of the time running as fast as she could from one slide to another, sometimes taking a break to play on the tire swing or under a waterfall. It was very difficult to keep up with her here – we would see her on a slide and go down the stairs to meet her, by that time she had come down and gone to a different slide on a different level, so we would change course and head there… but invariably she was navigating the area faster than us and it was often a game of cat and mouse! But she became very confident of her skills on the slides, almost to the point of being reckless!

With only about 30 minutes left until closing time Lily decided she really wanted to ride the “Pharohs” ride again, I suspected by now there would not be much wait since so many people were leaving and I was right! So we made one last trip up the big hill with our raft, and took the ride through the Pyramid one more time. Lily was definitely less scared than the first time, but still closed her eyes in some parts.

Finally time to leave, we headed back to change clothes and go to dinner. There was a whole section of the park we didn’t even get to see – this place is Huge! We though going through Denver at Dinner time would make a good excuse to stop at the Old Spaghetti Factory. We had been to the one in Denver a couple of times, but not since Lily was a baby. The one in Atlanta was such a part of our college years, I wanted Lily to at least have an idea what it was like. We called for directions, and it wasn’t more than about 20 minutes away.

On the way into downtown (Where OSF is located) we passed the baseball stadium, it looked a like a game was about to start. We found a parking lot a couple of blocks away and walked the rest. Lily had recently become interested in tall building and “downtowns” so it was really cool to walk around in one for a bit!

There was only a short wait for a table, we were all tired and hungry (and thirsty!) During dinner we got a specialsurprise – a Balloon twister was there! He made Lily a Ladybug bracelet, and made me an apple. After dinner we all felt much more relaxed, but still pretty wiped out! Once again, we had had quite a day!

Maybe we should take it easy next weekend. Why does that just not sound like any fun???