Water Country!!

I grew up going to water parks. Now, mind you some of these were really grimy Chinese water parks...but not all of the Chinese ones were grimy. I just remember one in particular that had a brown pool (no joke) that we all tended to avoid like the plague. Probably because it contained just that, the plague. Chinese water parks are a lot more lenient when it comes to nudity as well. I've said it and I'll say it again, Chinese have no shame and Chinese kids run around naked like it's nothing. So back to the point...I grew up going to water parks. And I found out recently that John had NEVER BEEN TO A WATER PARK...which should be illegal in my opinion. So we tried to remedy that as quickly as possible. Active duty military can get complimentary tickets to one of a series of amusement parks and one of them was Water Country USA up in Williamsburg, Virginia. So we made a weekend of it. We drove up on Friday and early Saturday morning headed to the park. I felt like a kid in a candy store. Since we were so early, we decided to take advantage of some of the more popular rides/slides while the crowds were small. The first one was called Vanish Point and was essentially a tube you stepped into that dropped you when the floor fell out from under you. The tower it was situated on was 75 feet high. It was scary but went by quickly and was a lot of fun. I think the scariest part was just waiting in line and seeing other people drop in the tubes down to the bottom. There was also a giant slide you could go down from the same tower and there wasn't a line for it so we did that directly afterward. Which I almost thought was more fun. After each ride, I checked to make sure I didn't lose my swimsuit before standing up. Hehe...

John and I agreed, there's something about a thrill, a rush that is therapeutic. Sure, while it's happening you feel a sort of panic. But afterward, it's like you dumped all your stress on the side walk. Or was that just your lunch...either way, I think that's why I enjoy things like crazy high slides of doom and roller coasters. I get to this point during them where I scream BLOODY MURDER and for a brief second, I'm convinced I'm dying and I have no control of my terror. I scream so hard that my lungs are entirely deflated, yet there's still unearthly sounds coming from my mouth. And then, 1/100th of a second later I realize, "hehe, this is fun!!" Afterward, though a little shaky, you feel freer than when you began. I guess it's just adrenaline. But there's something relieving about it.

I think we rode each ride at least once. A few of them we went twice because the line moved quickly. I think our favorites were the inner tube rides and one that was a lot of fun was this lazy river ride. Basically, you just floated in this river that had a constant current and you could either swim it or wear a life jacket and just float along. It was very relaxing and I think we went around the course 2 or 3 times.

By the end of the day, we were wiped out but thankfully not sunburned. We had planned to go to this put-put golf course that evening but were pretty tired so we ended up just going back to the hotel.

The next day it was PUT-PUT TIME!! We are so mature.

The put-put course was actually pretty cool and we had a lot of fun.

And it was very, VERY hot.

Throughout the course, there were plaques telling all about the pirate Blackbeard's life.

So it was educational AND fun! Yay! We have a history of going to put-put courses. We used to have one just down the highway from us in NC.

In fact, we got ALL these tokens from the arcade there too and then it went out of business. So now we have a bunch of tokens for no reason. But this course was definitely cooler by far. There was a pirate ship! And pirates!

After we finished the course, we headed back into Williamsburg to a coffee shop John had shown me the night before. I had been exhausted and cranky from swimming and just wanted to go home and shower. But oh no, he was DETERMINED to find this coffee shop for me. Well...I wasn't disappointed. It was called Aromas and was heaven.

They had the LARGEST piece of chocolate cake and apple pie I've ever seen in my life. We had dinner there the night before and we agreed that a nice coffee and scone after put-put was in order.

So we went back and enjoyed the atmosphere. It had lots of character and I was very inspired to write. I could have LIVED there.

So that's pretty much our trip! Last but not least, here are two pictures from the rodeo.

Up first, we have me looking freakishly excited.

Secondly, was the American flag being ridden around the pen. Andddd that's it!