Great Wolf Lodge

On Friday night we drove about 2 hours up to the Poconos to spend the night at Great Wolf Lodge, and then on Saturday spent the day playing in their indoor water park. Lots of our friends have gone and we thought that a day of swimming would be an excellent way to celebrate Mike's birthday (which is actually today, but we have been celebrating in various guises for days...and will continue through at least this weekend!)

The room we stayed in was called a "Wolf Den" suite. The kids had bunk beds in a little "log cabin" and were set up with their own TV and game system (which unfortunately didn't work...but that was OK...)

We arrived right around 6PM and after unloading our stuff, we checked out the arcade for a bit. The kids love arcades. I am more of a return-on-investment person - I want to have a lot of fun for my money and feeding tokens into games that last 10 seconds doesn't do it for me. Sort of like slot machines - which to me are like broken vending machines - money goes in, nothing comes out.

But we enjoyed several rounds of Skee Ball, and the kids had a lot of fun. They each accrued about 200 prize tickets, which wasn't enough for any substantial prize, but respectable.

After the playing, we went in search of dinner. After the sticker shock of the buffet, which was the only on-site dinner choice, we loaded back into the car and drove about 2 miles down the road to Friendly's.

We returned to the hotel in time for Sprout and Mike to attend "The Great Clocktower Show" in the lobby. Tater opted out, since he isn't a big fan of animatronic creatures, so we went back to the room and read books. Sprout's first response when we asked how the show was was "Awesome" - but later, she said it was really creepy and weird, so apparently we made the right call in boycotting.

Then it was bedtime. Tater, as the most mobile sleeper in all the land, was put on the lower bunk for his own safety. Sprout quite triumphantly claimed the top. They had a hard time getting to sleep due to the combination of a) excitement b) away from home-ness and c) children running screaming through the halls until 11PM. Rude.

In the morning we passed on the in-house cuisine again in favor of a Dunkin' Donuts run. And around 10 we packed up our stuff and put it out in the car and went to the water park.

We had watched the action through the window the night before, and it was impressive from afar. But wow...it is quite the set-up!

There are 6 huge water slides (some of which snake their way outside the building), a wave pool, a hot tub, and a bunch of other stuff!

The kids liked the wave pool the best, but eventually warmed up to the slides and really enjoyed them. Over the course of the day, things got more crowded and there were some fairly significant lines for the slides. But they moved pretty quickly so there wasn't too much wait time.

All of the big slides ended in shallow pools - the deepest was 3 1/2 feet. And since riders go in big rafts and inner-tubes, strong swimming skills were not required to ride. Lots of inner tubes were available in the wave pool as well, so the kids always felt safe. There are also lots of lifeguards on duty and safety does seem to be a big priority (as it should be!)

The picture up there is of the area called Fort Mackenzie, which is a huge complex of sprinklers and buckets and hoses spraying water all over. The highlight is a HUGE bucket that holds 1000 gallons of water (!) and dumps over everything every few minutes. We were standing right under it when it dumped and oh my...that's a lot of water!

We played from 10 until about 3, going back and forth between the different pools and activities. Mike took a break to have an adult beverage and watch some basketball at the bar, and the kids and I had a snack break with little corn dogs and fries (such the healthy weekend!) We passed (again) on the "real" food. (I swear I am not completely cheap, but $9 for a sandwich that a kid will probably not eat seems wrong...)

When we were good and shriveled, we changed in the locker rooms (well, actually in the bathroom, since the locker rooms were monopolized by people doing a full-on makeover or something) and got ready to hit the road for home.

The kids went back to the arcade to cash in their prize tickets - mostly on candy. Then we made a stop in the gift shop, which was not as horrific as those stops usually are. I think all of the waterplay exhausted the kids to the point where they were incapable of begging for every single item in the shop. They each chose a huge lollipop with an itty bitty stuffed wolf. I got a fridge magnet. Big splurge.

The kids had hoped we would be able to partake of the MagiQuest game while we were there. This is a scavenger-hunt-like game where participants have electronic wands and a list of clues. The clues lead to items in the hotel and waving the wand in front of those items registers that they have been found. Apparently this is very fun. But we were out of time, so we'll have to save it for next time!

We made a stop at a Perkins on the way back and had our lunch (of breakfast food) around 4...so we were quite starving. Yum...pancakes!

I am sure we'll go back again. Sprout kept saying "This is the best day of my entire life" and Tater declared it to be "Awesome". I think next time we would go earlier on the first day, so that there would be time for the MagiQuest game. Guests are allowed to participate in activities on-site for the entire day of check-in and check-out - so a one-night stay could get you two solid days of playing.

Great Wolf Lodge, to me, had the aura of a kid-appropriate casino. Everything is big and dramatic, you have no idea what time it is, and you rarely run out of things to do. Not cheap, but definitely worth the drive and the investment!

Totally Tubular - Winter Sports Version

Sometime back in January while watching the kids sled down our back hill, narrowly missing the deck supports and wiping out bushes along the way, I thought that maybe there could be a better venue for sledding. Something less heart-attack inducing, perhaps.

While a quick shift across the street to the walking path (which is free of obstacles, yet sends the children hurtling into the street) was sort of an upgrade, I began to research options.

Finally we settled on a trip to Blue Mountain Ski Area for tubing. We originally thought we would go over our extended President's Day weekend. However, there were some scheduling issues (mostly that they weren't open until it would have been getting dark) and we had to bump the trip to this past Sunday.

We went with our neighbors, who have kids about the same age as ours, plus a 3 year old. When we woke up in the morning, things were looking pretty gray. The weather people were promising that it wouldn't last, so we set off on our adventure.

The trip was shorter than we anticipated, about 90 minutes from our place. We managed to miss all of the McDonald's options on the way there and decided lunch in the lodge was the easiest (although surely not most economical) option. I think the kids were too excited to eat, though. They were ready to GO!

Tickets for Sunday were $25 per person for a 4 1/2 hour mid-day window of time. Rates vary for different time periods. I figured we were unlikely to make it more than 2 or 3 hours, as it was still drizzling a little bit when we started out.

There are two types of tubes. Big, family-style ones that hold up to 4 adults (we managed to get 4 kids and 2 adults in and sneak past), and single-person tubes.

The lift for the family tubes is easier to negotiate, since you sit in the tube and a big hook drags you up the hill. The lift for the individual tubers is like a huge conveyor belt where you stand on the belt and drag your tube behind. Very tricky to stand on a conveyor belt going up a hill with nothing to hold onto! Entertaining (in a wrong-ish sort of way) to watch the kids stumbling around the first few times.

The most dramatic moment was Tater falling out of the tube on the way up the family lift....dragging along behind the tube and laughing. I had to haul him back in while my friend held my feet so I wouldn't also fall out. Very exciting!

We split our time between the two types. The kids and Dads seemed more into the single tubes, which can go quite a bit faster and can be strapped together to make 2 or 3 person "pods". There are starters at the top of each run that make sure no one gets run over, and they can give you a good spin at the start, which the kids LOVED.

I personally preferred the family-style. A little less kamikaze-ish, yet still exciting enough for me!

About 45 minutes into the tubing, the sun came out and things warmed up a bit and it was absolutely beautiful out (and yet, still quite cold!) We took a break after about 2 1/2 hours for snacks and thawing and then went back and continued to ride until the end of the session. So we did the full 4 1/2 hours!! Outside! In the cold! And it was SO FUN!!

The kids are asking if next time we can try skiing. And in theory, I suppose that is do-able. Yet I have flashbacks to skiing with my post-college friends and actually falling off of the trail. Into the woods. Like, hanging from a branch...skis dangling.

And while part of me wishes I was cool enough to snowboard - I know I totally am not. And my poor old-lady back wouldn't make it through an attempt.

So maybe I will just stick with the tubing. Low-injury potential. Nearly impossible to go off-course. No falling. Just fun.

Sold!

Krazy Village/Jungle Wonder

On Saturday afternoon, all fired up from many weeks of Wii Bowling, Tater asked if we could go "real" bowling.

So I called the famous Downingtown Bowling Palace and, not all that surprisingly, all of their lanes were booked until 8PM. Too late for kid bowling.

So I used the handy-dandy Google search feature and put in "Bowling 19425" to find nearby bowling venues. There were a few lanes on there, but more interestingly, the search turned up a place called Jungle Wonder.

And when you see Jungle Wonder on the search results, you have to check that out, right?

So I clicked through and saw that Jungle Wonder, in Limerick, PA boasts and impressive 25,000 square feet of fun things like Black Light Mini Golf, Laser Tag, and "Mini Bowling".

Clicking through on their site there is a related place called Krazy Village, at the same address, offering exactly the same things. Odd.

Of course Saturday passed by in a blur. We had a new DVD of the Muppet Show that had to be watched, and then there was some reading and some playing with the dog. So we decided that Sunday would be the day to check out Jungle Wonder/Krazy Village.

It took just about 40 minutes to get there from our place - if you have an concept of where the new Philadelphia Premium Outlets are (and you should find them if you don't!) KV/JW is a few miles down the other direction on Ridge Pike (if you take a Left from 422 to go to the outlets, turn Right to go to KV/JW).

After a fruitless attempt to find a McDonald's for lunch (is there seriously not one right in Collegeville?) we had a quick introduction to Sonic before heading in to play.

It is a little confusing because there is a big sign on the upstairs of the one side of the building that says "Krazy Village", but no indication of where to go in. On the opposite side of the building is a smaller sign for the entrance to "Jungle Wonder". They are really pretty much the same facility - I am not sure why they don't just pick a name and go with it. Free marketing tip there.

Not knowing how long everything would take we decided to do the Black Light Mini Golf and the Mini Bowling.

Black Light Mini Golf was very cool. The room that the course is in is dark, and the edges of the "greens" and the scenery are all painted in neon so they glow in the black light.

It is very hard to judge distance in black light, but the kids enjoyed it and we didn't actually keep score. That little white stripe on the left side of the picture is Sprout's shirt...hard to take pictures with a camera phone in the dark...

There are only 9 holes on the course, so - cool as it was, Black Light Mini Golf took about 10 minutes to complete. I think we could have easily held onto our balls for another round, but that probably wouldn't be sending the right message to the kids...right?

So we moved on to Mini Bowling. It is essentially arcade bowling. The balls are smallish - kind of like Ski Ball balls. The pins are also smallish, and hanging on strings. The dynamics are quite different from regular bowling and WAY different from the Wii Bowling that we have all gotten used to. So we kind of sucked at this. But it was still fun.

And that took about another 20 minutes.

So we went back and signed up for the Balladium and Laser Tag. If I had realized ahead of time that we were going to be burning through activities I would have gotten the "Fun Pack" which essentially lets the kids do everything for $19.95. Our total tab was right around there and they didn't get to climb on the big "Jungle Gym". Live and learn.

Anyway - Balladium. This was a room full of air-shooter things. There were balls all over the floor and the kids had to gather up the balls, put them in the shooters and shoot at targets on the other side of the room. They loved this.


It would have been more fun with a bigger crowd of kids so they could have teams and compete. But my two guys just were right next to each other shooting away. Still fun though.

There were safety glasses in there, but we didn't see them until they were almost done. Safety glasses would have been good.

Finally, the kids went and played Laser Tag, which they say was fun, but I have to take their word for it because there was no way to observe. They went in happy and came out happy, so I have to assume they had a good time.

Krazy Village/Jungle Wonder seems to be quite the birthday party destination and in addition to the attractions that we enjoyed, they also have an extensive arcade, a big climber/Jungle Gym and pool tables. There are about 10 party rooms and they have only one entrance/exit so it is fairly easy to make sure no children escape (and yet again, I would have to ask, why 2 names and only one entrance? Confusing!)

We were happy with our little discovery and will have to go back again sometime soon. But I already promised Tater, next weekend we will do REAL bowling!

Monkeying Around

Hope everyone had an awesome holiday and has recovered (at least partially) from the madness of it all. We are decidedly in the post-celebration phase of winter vacation and looking for fun!

I have completely not been following my own advice this week and we have been completely winging it. After approximately 47,000 hours of MarioCart on the new Wii, we (I) decided it was time to get out of the house.

The need to get out, combined with Tater jumping around the house like a lunatic, led me to believe that a place with moonbounce-type entertainment would be the way to go.

After considering several local alternatives, we chose Monkey Joe's in Pottstown. Strangely, their website is www.monkeyjoesphilly.com - although they are seriously REALLY far from Philly.

Located in the "Suburbia Shopping Center" on Route 100, essentially an oasis of commercialism in the middle of nowhere, Monkey Joe's, unlike many similar establishments, is brightly lit, with huge windows in the "parent lounge" area (with massage chairs and free WIFI!!) The facility is relatively new - they have probably been there about a year - so everything is nice and clean and new.

There are referees who monitor the kids (although I still can't quite allow myself to plop in front of the big screen TV (!) and watch Judge Joe while the kids are playing). Everyone seemed to be playing nicely with no major catastrophes looming on the horizon.

I really liked that they had a wristband system where kids and parents are tagged upon entry with matching numbers and no one can leave with a kid unless the numbers match. I am frantic that way :) Something about Chuck E. Cheese makes me think child predators are lurking in every corner, this felt very safe to me.

The kids bounced and slid for 2 hours, only taking a break to recharge with some scary Spongebob popsicles. Ahhh...the joys of artificial color and flavor molded into the shape of a cartoon character!

There was a moment when Mr. Monkey Joe himself (creepy - see picture above) made an appearance and I thought Tater might lose it. But he held himself together surprisingly well and even waved from afar. I think we have turned a corner in the realm of dressed-up things. Not quite Disney ready, but possibly less likely to run screaming from Chik-Fil-A if the cow makes an appearance. Good stuff!

Monkey Joe's is offering 1/2 price admission on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day - and they have lots of special things going on during the week - magic shows, story times, etc. I would highly recommend checking out Monkey Joe's if the kids need to get out and let off some steam while it is cold outside!

A great place to get your bounce on!