Great Wolf LodgeWell, once again, Santa has completely skipped our house. Not even a piece of coal in our stockings. Granted, we didn't hang any stockings. Nor put up a tree. I'm starting to think maybe it has something to do with the fact that we're Jewish. You think?

Growing up, I remember spending a lot of Christmas Days going to the movies with my friends (either that or bowling was the only option. Nothing else was open.) and having Chinese food for dinner. Seriously, those were our traditions. Well, this year, we decided to start a new tradition. We were going to join my wife's two sisters and their families (husbands and kids) at the Great Wolf Lodge in Pennsylvania. That's 6 adults and 7 kids at an amazing indoor water park.

We planned to leave early Monday morning and spend Christmas Eve there, then leave later the next day. Of course with 7 kids, you know there's a huge chance something can and will go wrong. So yeah, last Saturday our youngest came down with a really bad stomach bug. But being the trooper that she is, my wife said I should still go and bring our 4 year old with me. "At least 2 of us should be having fun, right?" she said. Good point. So me and the big guy spent Christmas Eve with my brothers- and sisters-in-law and all the nieces and nephews.

Now this place is enormous. I mean like really really enormous. It's got a great log cabin type of feel to it and is super kid friendly. An arcade, bunch of restaurants, games, crafts and activities are all over. The rooms are fairly nice rooms, decent sized with the wood motif continuing throughout. But the main attraction is the insane indoor waterpark. There's a few different swimming pool areas (including a great kiddie pool that has 4 different slides, 2 basketball nets and all sorts of water squirters), a huge wave pool, and 4 or 5 giant water slides for kids and adults alike. A few of the enclosed tubes actually go through the walls and outside for a bit, so yeah in the middle of winter you actually feel the temperature drop for a second or two while you're zipping through on your inner tube. Toss in a zillion other water-related forts, and this place was the mecca of water parks.

So with all that going on, what was my son's highlight from his little bonding vacation with daddy? "We could play Mario Kart in our room!" Sigh. Yeah, the TV in our room had one of those Nintendo GameCube controllers attached to it. And for $7 an hour, you can play an assortment of games. Yep, playing a game (that we actually own at home) in a hotel room was the highlight of his trip. I guess things could've been worse. At least we didn't have any bathroom accidents.

COUPON TIME:

No, I'm not going to offer up coupons for water. Though I'm sure I could probably find some. Heh. Instead, I'll focus on travel as the cold winter starts to settle in.

Disneyland Promotions at Orbitz.com
Valid through: December 30, 2007
Use the above link to see all the available promotions including:

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