Vacation, Day 3

The Rowe family had a blast up in New Hampshire yesterday, visiting the water park "The Whale's Tail" in Lincoln.  For me, it was also a blast from the past, as I had spent many summers at the same water park with my family.

The drive up to Lincoln was long but captivating, full of gorgeous scenery:

Julia was bursting with commentary along the drive, filling us in on what she saw out her window.  "Mama, it looks like there's some kind of really FUN PLACE over there!"  (Attitash Mountain's alpine slide), "Mama, I saw ANOTHER hotel pool, unless that's still OUR hotel pool??" (driving by a motel nowhere near where we're staying), "Look, Mama, a PLAYGROUND!"  I'm glad she was truly pausing to take in all the natural beauty surrounding us.

Madeleine, for her part, seems to have no real understanding of what "vacation" is, nor does she seem to truly know where we are, but she's just happily rolling with it.  She seems absolutely content with our new home, aka the inn we're staying at.  (Just the evening before, as we returned to the inn from our dinner restaurant, we had the following conversation: MADELEINE: Mommy, this is NOT our home.  ME: No, you're right, it's not.  Why, are you wanting to go home?  MADELEINE: No.  I don't.  I just want to live here.)  As we drove towards the water park, however, Madeleine suddenly seemed to fear that we were simply moving on to a new place, and had forgotten her most precious commodity.

MADELEINE: Oh no!  We forbot Cowie!  I need Cowie!
JULIA: Cowie's at the HOTEL, Madeleine.
MADELEINE: But... I need Cowie!
JULIA: No, Madeleine, we're going to the WHALE'S TAIL.
MADELEINE: Oh.  The Whale's Tail.

And with that completely unrelated-to-Cowie explanation, Madeleine was back to happily going with the flow.

I don't think the girls could have been more excited by the Whale's Tail if there had been an actual whale there.  In fact, that probably would have reduced the experience, as Madeleine seemed to perseverate on the name of the park while we waited in the admission line.

MADELEINE: But... there's NOT going to be a whale there.  I don't want to go near a WHALE.  Whales are just mean.  SHARKS are really really mean, but they're NICE.  But... there's NOT going to be SHARKS there.

Yes, you can see how well she understands what's going on.

Once we entered the park, it was non-stop fun for the kids.  Madeleine even got in trouble for being WAY too much of a daredevil in the kiddie wading pool area.  I guess flying down the kiddie water slides head first and taking a blast of water to the face is a no-no.  Julia braved the big water slides and had the time of her life, and both kids were thrilled to ride the waves in the big wave pool.  Maybe the most exciting attraction of all was "Shipwreck Island," featuring water slides of all sizes so that both girls could suit their fancies, plus a series of sprinklers and fountains to prance through.

A photo summary of our fun day:

As we sat down for a lunch break, Madeleine turned to me and exclaimed, "Mom, I had SO MUCH FUN at vacation!"

I wonder what exactly she thinks vacation is.

At any rate, she was happy as a clam at the water park, bursting into tears when it was time to head back to our inn, though obviously worn out because she nearly immediately conked out in the car and slept for the whole ride back.

After heading out to dinner for some local, not-at-all-New-Hampshire-culture Tex Mex cuisine, we Rowes were ready to call it a night!