Summer Trip #1 of 3

Summer is the best season in Chicago, this June's thunderstorms notwithstanding. Summer is when I actually want to be here, to take advantage of the pool, the splash pad, and Lake Michigan. Better to take out-of-state vacations in the winter months when you need to get out of here. Therefore, this summer our family is taking three mini-trips, all of which are within two hours of here. (Technically Trip #2 is out-of-state, because it's in Indiana, but it's not like Indiana is that far. I can get to the Indiana border in 10 minutes, which is something useful to know if I'm ever in a situation where I need to get across state lines in a hurry.)

Coincidentally, all three of the trips involve waterparks. Or maybe it's not coincidental, because I do love water. While of course all human beings need water, I feel like I have a sort of deeper, spiritual need for water as well. (Does that sound cheesy? I feel like that sounds like something that one of those people who talks about angels would say.) Despite my recent efforts to be a runner, I always come back to swimming for exercise. I just love me a good body of water, natural or human-made.

So, our first vacation was to Key Lime Cove indoor waterpark hotel in Gurnee, Illinois. It's only about an hour and 15 minutes away from our house. (Though it takes a little longer when you drive up during a mini-tornado, the kind that takes down 6,000 trees.) We went to Key Lime Cove last year, and I appreciated its extreme kid-friendliness. One problem I always experience with Nathan in a hotel is that it's hard to handle downtime. Sure, he has tons of fun when we're out doing touristy activities, but he doesn't have enough to do while we're sitting around the hotel waiting for all members of the family to take showers and get ready to go. With Key Lime Cove, I can just time it so that I can take Nathan down to the playroom, waterpark, or arcade while Bill is in the shower, preventing a total destruction of the hotel room.

I took Nathan to the waterpark the first night, and he immediately commenced sliding down the slides in the little kid area. I didn't have the camera with me that night, but here's a slightly bad photo from last year's trip showing the general area:
Nathan immediately yelled, "This is so much fun!" The smile on his face while he went down those slides ... you should be able to bottle that kind of joy. (Not to sound like my grandma or anything.)

Then Bill won Nathan a Pac-Man stuffed animal from one of those claw games, leading him to recount his Claw Game Victory in the way that some men tell fishing tales.

Saturday was Bill's birthday, and we packed in the fun. Here are a few waterpark shots:

The lazy river

Climbing the rope bridge in the splash pad thingy

Top of the slide, illustrating potential energy in high school science textbooks.

Bottom of the slide

Somewhat bummeratively (it's a word), I had gotten an ear infection the day before the trip, so I was not supposed to immerse my ear in water. I quickly discovered (or rationalized) that most waterpark activities don't necessarily involve immersion, so in my opinion my ear wasn't exposed to any more water than it would be in the shower. I was able to go in the lazy river, the wave pool, and down a super-special slide for people taller than 48 inches, all without any ear immersion. (Okay, there was one ear immersion. I was trying to protect my camera from getting wet and I accidentally went underwater. Which is dumb because allegedly my camera is waterproof to 10 feet.)

We also went to the nearby outlet mall, which is like a crazy, in-your-face, totally overstimulating experience when you are a toddler. There are exciting stores to your left and right, and now there's crap in the middle of the mall as well. The Disney store! People making balloon animals! Rides you put quarters in! As a result, it was difficult to drag Nathan through that long, long, extra-long mall. And when we got back to the hotel, he had the worst meltdown of his life. We got him in bed at 7 p.m. and then spent the rest of the night watching TV and eating a really big cupcake for Bill's birthday. (Fortunately, Key Lime Cove has no shortage of places that sell overpriced junk food.)

Sunday we maximized our fun potential by spending two hours in the waterpark and arcade before check-out time. I love Skee Ball, but I feel like such a weirdo as a grown woman just standing there putting token after token in the Skee Ball machine. (I could also have Nathan with me as an excuse to be there, but he tends to interfere with my game.)

On the way home I let Bill go to his favorite board game store, it being Father's Day and all, while I went across the street to the farmer's market and bought some smoked string cheese and 5-year aged cheddar. Then we went home and it was 2:30, and I was "lucky" enough to have a whole afternoon to do chores. Yay!