Day 23

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

This morning, Robert and I headed to the gym for a quick workout on the elliptical before heading off for a mini vacation for the next few days.  The girls stayed home to get their things packed and clean up their rooms before we left.  When we got home, we loaded up the dogs to take them for their yearly shots before boarding them at the veterinary clinic while we were gone.  This process is always a pain, but at least it only has to been done once a year.  After we left them at the clinic, we headed home to have a quick lunch before heading to the Great Wolfe Lodge.

Simba on top and Nala on bottom

The Great Wolfe Lodge is a hotel with a large indoor water park and an additional smaller outdoor water park.  The best part about this water park is that the only way you can get in is if you have a room at their hotel.  This helps to control the amount of people in the park so that the lines for the rides aren't too long.  The hotel was very nice and our room was really cool.  The girls stayed in their own little 'cabin' room that contained bunk beds and another single bed.  The walls had friendly forest creatures on the walls and even had a t.v. in their 'room'  There was another t.v. in the main room where Robert and I stayed.  We took breakfast and lunch items so that we could eat in our room in order to save a little money and time while we were there.

The entrance to the hotel

We're here!

Our room

The kids 'cabin' inside our room

An inside view of their 'cabin'

When we checked into the hotel, we each received a wrist band that granted us access to the water park area.  The wrist band that Robert and I had also contained a chip in it that opened our door and was tied to our room so that we could just charge purchases back to us without having to carry around a wallet.  This made things very convenient.

Once we had settled into our room, we headed out to the water park.  Now, there are two sides to this mini vacation at Great Wolfe Lodge during this week.  The good was that there was an outdoor area that we could utilize.  The bad was that the temperatures in north Texas the past few days has been unseasonably cooler than normal.  This ordinarily is a very welcome change in our typically smouldering hot weather; however, being at a water park with lower than normal temperatures doesn't really work in our favor.  Basically, the water was COLD!!!!  We made the best of it and had a great time anyways.

The giant tree house..lots of water!

The lazy river that went underneath the tree house.
Melinda is getting water dumped on her by someone
in the tree house.

Melinda was very interested in trying out all of the water slides, so she and I made our way through most of them during the first day.  Ally and Abby rode the two smaller ones in the outdoor area and Ally tried one of the larger ones inside.  She didn't care for it much.  We decided to call it a day around 4:30 p.m. so that we could get showered and changed for dinner.

A view of the larger water slides.  Melinda and I rode
the yellow, orange, green, and blue slides.
Melinda rode the red one by herself.

Another look at the yellow, orange, and green slides.
The green one was awesome!

Great Wolfe Lodge is located in Grapevine, Texas, which is home to a huge indoor mall just a short drive away from the hotel.  This mall is called the Grapevine Mills mall and inside is a really neat restaurant called The Rainforest Cafe.  We decided to take Melinda there for dinner.  The food is pretty good, but you definitely go there for the atmosphere.  The entire restaurant is decorated like a rain forest.  From floor to ceiling there are plants and 'animals', fish, and mist that simulate a rain forest.  Every few minutes, the 'animals' (which are animatronic creatures that move and make noises) will come to life and the sounds of gorillas and elephants fill the restaurant.  We enjoyed dinner making sure to leave room for their signature desert, the Sparkling Volcano.  It...is...SO...YUMMY!!!!!  All five of us shared it and there was still some left over.  It is a few slices of brownie surrounding two large scoops of vanilla ice cream topped with whipped cream and a streamer on the top.  They used to stick a sparkler on the top, but I guess someone couldn't handle the flashing lights and they had to go the safe route instead. 

The entrance to the Rainforest Cafe

The amazing Sparkling Volcano 

After dinner, we walked around the mall for a few minutes before heading back to the hotel.  We stopped at the hotel gift shop before heading downstairs to the game room.  Robert bought the girls a playing card so they could play a few games before bedtime.  The won about 200 tickets and stored them on their card so they could continue playing on Wednesday night.  They pool their winnings and split the total at the prize counter once they're ready.

Once we were back in the room, everyone got ready for bed.  Melinda sat down to write her blog once the girls were asleep and Robert and I headed down to one of the restaurants to have a drink.

We came back to the room and sat up talking to Melinda until at least midnight.  One thing we've learned about Melinda is that she absolutely, without a doubt, is terrified of spiders.  Now, she says that they do not have a large number of spiders in Hungary, so being here has been a big adjustment.  She has seen several over the past three weeks, especially while we were at the Roger Creager concert.  A medium-sized wolf spider crawled across her foot and she about came unglued.  Now, knowing this, Robert thought it'd be a good idea to google several of the most dangerous spiders in our region and show Melinda pictures of what they look like.  Yes, that sounds like a good way to get someone to have a restful and pleasant evening.