Wild Wednesday

Our busy week continued on Wednesday... We had planned a week earlier to take the day off on July 30, and take all the kids to Wild Waves for the day! We bought season passes this year, and wanted to make the most of them, so it seemed like a great idea. I arranged to get the day off, Cindy arranged for her assistant to work the entire day, and we were set to go!

However...

During Tuesday night's Dishwasher Olympics, it started raining. And Wednesday was getting conflicting forecasts, with some saying it would clear off and hit the low 70s, and others saying the clouds and cold would carry on. We decided that if we woke up to clouds and cold, we'd scrap our plans, but if we woke up to the promise of a blue sky, we'd stick to the plan.

Alarm goes off... I glance at the window... YEAH!! Blue sky, sunshine streaming in, a few white puffy clouds, but nothing to worry about. Radio says it's gonna burn off and hit 70. Alright, we're gonna do it!!

A few hours later, everyone was up and ready to go. Our blue sky had become largely obscured by overcast, but there was still enough blue showing that we had hope for a nice day.

And Bad Omen Number One was only seconds away.

First stop of the day, the bank to make a deposit and pull out some cash for the park. Before we even turned off our street, we almost got run into by a car that wanted to make a left turn and apparently couldn't be bothered to notice the large blue minivan in the way. I hit the horn and shot the driver the best Look of Contempt I could muster on a nice, sunny day off work... He retreated and let us pass undamaged.

Unfortunately, Bad Omen Number Two was only a minute away from there.

As we went through our second intersection of the day, going straight, doing nothing to attract danger, someone in the oncoming direction blew threw a red light in the left turn lane and turned left, aiming directly at us. I punched the gas and swerved to the right, only to see a car on that side, about to turn right, which would result in a sandwich collision with us in the middle. Somehow, I managed to pilot our van with surgical precision to avoid both cars and wind up in the lane we would have been in anyway if we hadn't had multiple heart-attack inducing incidents in that 200 square foot area.

We managed to make it the next quarter mile to the bank without anyone else trying to hit us. Made our deposit. Had a family prayer for protection, safety and FUN. Cautiously made our way to the freeway to continue our day of fun...

And the closer we got to Wild Waves, the darker the skies got. What had been mostly overcast in Tacoma became completely overcast in Fife, and was full-on black clouds of doom by the time we got to Federal Way, home of our destination. Still hoping for clearing, we parked and decided to just play on the dry side of the park for the first few hours of the day.

I'm not sure we needed another Bad Omen, but we got one... The first ride we got in line for was the Wild Thing, a fun twisty-turny-upside-downy roller coaster. We were in line, watching the train go by, noticing that the crowd levels were low enough that they were letting each train go through the ride twice! Yeah! We got to where we were halfway up the stairs that lead to the loading dock, and the train swooped around behind us, and turned to the climbing chain to start another run. Clack, clack, clack, it goes up the hill as we watch, eagerly anticipating our turn...

And then it stopped.

The motor driving the chain just shut down. Leaving a fully loaded train just standing there, on the big climb, motionless... it took about five seconds for Cindy to say "after the morning we've had, there is NO way I'm getting on that now..." We all agreed and went back out to find something else to ride on. Several other line waiters followed...

That all worked out okay, and the kids enjoyed a handful of rides with very short lines. Then Kaylee and Chelsey went on the "Ring of Fire" which is like a roller coaster, but it's on a circle loop frame, and just goes around and around. Not one of my favorites, as I like my roller coasters to go on a track with lots of different sensations, not just around and around. About 20 years ago, something in my body switched and I discovered I couldn't do the "spin 'n' barf" rides anymore. I've coped by just not going on them, since they were never really my favorites anyway.

But Kaylee and Chelsey were saying how fun it was, and how Tyler should go on it too... Tyler LOVES rides like that, but the problem is that he doesn't KNOW he loves them until he's gone on them. Prior to that first time, he is quite the little scaredy cat. Knowing he would truly love it, I tried to convince him to go. Ultimately, the only way he was going on that ride was if I came with him.

Being a contender for the 2008 Dad of the Year award, I put my personal preference aside and got in line with him. Kaylee was beside herself with the joy that Tyler and I were going to ride with her. We got on the ride as Tyler was fighting back tears of terror. As the ride started, it took a couple back and forth sweeps for his terror to be replaced with cautious excitement... A few passes later, he was screaming the happy screams that said he was loving the ride like I knew he would. At precisely the same time, my stomach sent a message to my brain. The message was:

And that was that. For the rest of the day, and well into the evening, I was nauseous. On top of the queezy feeling, I was incredibly irritated that the FIRST ride I set foot on that day would also be my last. I never had motion sickness as a kid, and to suddenly be dealing with it really ticked me off. I tried all the things I hoped would help...

Walk it off?


Eat some lunch?


Drink lots of water?


No, there was no fixing it. Plus, the black clouds were still looming above, and now the frigid arctic wind had joined them in sneering at us. The kids didn't mind in the least, and were all set to go hit the waterslides. Cindy and I made the decision to let them go right ahead. We also made the decision to leave, go home and get sweatshirts, and come back, lay on the grassy hill where we'd set up camp, and take a nap.

Amazingly, we didn't have any near-accidents on that round trip, and we got back to the park feeling somewhat better about the day... although for the record, I still felt very, very queasy.

The kids had a blast on the waterslides, and the dry rides. Kaylee and Tyler went on the Wild Thing (which was working again) four times, the ring of fire another couple times, and had what I'm sure to them, was a near-perfect day. The bigger kids all had fun too, but soon it was time to go. Chelsey had to work at 6, so we headed home so she could get ready. Oh... Interesting note... When we ran back home for warmer clothes, it was still mostly sunny and warm in Fircrest. In fact, it was 7 degrees warmer than it was 15 miles up the freeway. And when we got home again, it was still nice, and right around 69 degrees... (it had warmed up to 63 when we left Wild Waves...)

Within minutes of being home, Kaylee and Tyler crashed on the couches in the living room.. I mean CRASHED. We almost didn't want to wake them up, but it was City of Fircrest night at the Tacoma Rainiers game! So we forklifted them off the couches, managed to get them upright, and headed out to the ballpark. Since Tacoma had had a nice sunny day, it was a really nice evening to be at the stadium.



The game was great - Rainiers won 8-2, there were a couple of great hometeam homeruns, we ate way too much junkfood, and stood loudly and cheered when our little town was welcomed on the scoreboard.

OH! And we got a family portrait with Rhubarb, the Rainiers' mascot. Unfortunately, the girl who was taking pictures there had never been told that cameras need to be held still to get good pictures... So here's a crappy camera phone shot made even crappier by the shaky hands of a mascot handler.



One last note about Rhubarb - I'm pretty sure he's the greatest mascot anywhere in sports. The guy in the costume is new this year, and our local paper did a write up on him when he got the job. He LOVES his role, and it shows in everything he does. He was down on the concourse when Cindy and I were getting food, and he ran right up and stuck his snout in her nachos, pretending to gobble them up. Then he moved on to her Jumbo Pepsi. When we were down later, with all the kids to get ice cream, we saw him do the same thing to someone else. Cindy ran up to him like a woman scorned, and said "Rhubarb!! I thought you only stole MY food!" Rhubarb hung his head in shame, and sulked away, kicking over a garbage can in the process... Then he pulled himself together for the picture above. He also did a routine during a break in the game where he challenged a roving food vendor to a dance-off. At the end, Rhubarb grabbed the vendor guy's food caddy, started tossing bags of food up into the crowd, and running for his life from the vendor guy. It was slapstick gold, and it really made me wonder why the big leaguers up in Seattle don't let the Moose do fun crazy stuff like that.

It was only Wednesday in the Busy Week of Summer, and by the time I'd picked up Chelsey from work and got down to bed, I was so full of junkfood, and so tired... I felt like this:



By that time, my nausea had finally pretty much gone away... And I now know for sure, that the next time I go to Wild Waves (season passes, remember?) I need to take something for motion sickness. Anybody got suggestions for what works while allowing me to be awake enough to enjoy the fact that I don't feel like puking?