Seattle Day 3

Day 3 in cool and grey Seattle was a big day for the little ones. Adam and Shannon drove the mini over to the Marriott and picked up Kristen, Brian and the boys and our niece Amy fixed a really nice lunch for everyone - 18 in all! After we enjoyed that and the boys enjoyed her fountain and green space behind her adorable patio, we loaded up the minis and 'had ourselves a convoy' through Olympia to Great Mound to the Great Wolf Water Park.

I have lived in CA for 30 years, a 10 year stint in LA and 20 in SD - I will never ever ever again talk about traffic woes in said cities, but I have witnessed and confirmed that the I/5 in Seattle has the worst traffic I have ever been in (including DC, NYC, LA, Chi-Town, Rome, London, Dublin, etc., etc., etc). There are just too many cars for the 3 lanes they have. What should have taken 1.5 hrs took almost 3 - a long time for little ones to be patient and wait. My poor driver husband could not go over 15 - 25 mph.....so when we saw the GREAT WOLF ahead of us we were happy to be sure. The Lodge includes s a 5 story indoor water park and you check in and get wristbands that allow you access to everything - like an all inclusive. Everything you buy and do is done with the swipe of a wristband, even entry to your room. However, when we checked in our rooms were not ready so we sorted out what we needed for access to the water park portion and just then some kid triggered the fire alarm and thousands of people came streaming out.....chaos level could not have been higher. I laugh as my sister said to me 'You are so quiet' - I think I was in shock/chaos/traffic overload. I deal with chaos all day at work but for some reason this overwhelmed me and true to my survival dealing nature I had to go to shutdown mode for a bit. Finally our rooms were ready, we unloaded and regrouped. The suite was fantastic, spacious, clean and decorated like a lodge, including 46 inch flat screens over the fireplaces :) We had 2 separate bedrooms and a huge family room and a kitchen, 2 bathrooms and the family room had a couch that made into a bed. So we suited up and headed for the water park where Dylan and Brody were little fishes. It was amazing to see how this place works with water play and rides from babies to adults. Steve, Amy, Deb and I went on the 'Howling Tornado' and it was fast and over the top - one ride was enough for me. I had fun playing with the boys and watching the cousins and all the other little ones and families. The downside to the set up is that it is over clorined and humid, which, it has to be to be so clean and safe but for those of us that are sensitive to that sort of thing it was a bit much. It was so so fun.

At 6 pm we had a pizza party in Deb's room which was just like our room and down the hall. Since is was close to her 60th birthday we had a little 'roast' to her. The kids and cousins all told funny stories and I had crafted '60 Things about 60 Year old Deborah Sue' and we had some memories and laughs with that. Amy made a very yummy coconut sheet cake and we enjoyed the evening.