Monday was weird

Weird but nice. Lemme 'splain.

As some of you who read here regularly know, I've been divorced since April 2004. Since then I've not spent any great amount of time with K, until yesterday.

Sunday evening when we met to exchange the kids, she told V and M that she thought Monday would be a great day for the three of them to go here. They met the suggestion with a slightly injuring (oh, the ego) enthusiastic tone. I was excited for them becasue I knew they'd have lots of fun but disappointed because I wouldn't be there to have fun with them.

Tickets for this place aren't exactly cheap at $35.99 per person over 48" tall, to be exact. After I got home Sunday night, I was still thinking about their planned trip the next day and how much fun they'd have without me. So I went onto the web site and saw the promotion they were running which was that if you purchased 4 passes on-line, they'd only charge you $109.00 or $27.25 per ticket.

Seeing this, even at 22:30, I called K on the phone and told her about it. I told her that if she bought the four passes, I'd use the fourth one and reimburse her for it at the park, pointing out the savings of the reduced ticket price.

She agreed that this was a good idea and we agreed to meet at the park at 9:30 in the morning. The park opened at 10:00 and closed at 18:00 with the plan being that we would stay at the park all day. The only thing I asked her not to do was to tell V and M that I was coming. I wanted to surprise them.

Much to my delight they were in shock when they saw me in the parking lot as they drove past where I was parked. My presence was a nice surprise for them. They allow coolers inside the park so we each packed one full of food and drinks. Of course the park security has to inspect the coolers for alcohol, etc. upon admission, which for us was not an issue.

What a perfect day for this kind of activity. The temperature was around 95 and the water was probably in the mid 80's. with hardly any clouds in the sky. We went on several of the slides which were great fun, gave the wave pool a good go and made many laps around the lazy river. There was only one slide which we tried to do but eventually decided not to becasue of the long line. We stood in line for 30 minutes and in that time probably only moved 50 feet. When we decided to abandon the line, it was longer behind us than it had been when we got there. We could have easily wasted half our day standing in that one line.

I didn't do too badly dealing with the sun. Got a little red but not severely burnt like I normally do. It realy is amazing how nice of a suntan V and K end up with every summer. Certainly didn't get that from me. Normally I burn way too easily.

The one complaint about the park that I had was, surprisingly not the crowd, eventhough the place was packed. Packed I tell you! Where we decided to park our stuff was at a picnic grove on the grounds. Some brilliant park people decided to put small rocks down on the round as the base instead of something softer and less harsh on the feet. Liek grass or mulch or something. Rocks are fine when you're wearing sandals or shoes but not if you're barefoot and wet...

The other complaint I had was my own fault. I had brought a book and noteboook with me in case I wanted to take a break and read. I had these things at the top of my cooler, so they would stay dry. But when the day was done and I was on the way home, I reached in the bottom of the cooler to pull out a water bottle and part of my book and notebook went in the melted ice water. I didn't realize it until I arrived home and was unpacking the cooler.

I hate soggy books. Fortunately the book was inexpensive and I will be able to replace it. I also am attempting to dry out the copy that got wet, but it's still not the same.

Even though it was awkward at times to spend time with K, it was still a great day which we all enjoyed.