All wet!

I had the perfect plan.  Pack a cooler with every snack, drink, and lunch food we would need for the whole day and camp out at the water park from 9:00am to 4:00pm our first full day at Great Wolf Lodge.  Jen and I the night before scoped out which tables I would get for us as soon as the doors opened at 9:00am.

A few things kept me from my plan being 100% successful; 
1. Despite hearing from someone or reading somewhere (of course I can't remember who or where now) that I could bring a cooler in with me, there was a big sign on the doors, stating "No coolers, no outside food and drink."  I even asked a staff member about this and they were pretty clear - no food/drinks allowed.  Of course you are welcome to purchase whatever you need or want from the snack bar inside the water park. 

At 9:00am the next morning, I noticed the size of the bags people were carrying inside the water park; I knew they had to be smuggling in food and drinks.  There was no way I was going to play by the rules and not everyone else.  Ha!  I invented not playing by the rules. While I didn't use the big cooler (on wheels) I brought with us, I did pack everything I wanted in a bag and carried it in with no problem. 

2. The other thing going against my plan of being at the water park from 9 until 4, was the company I was with.  2 five year olds and 2 two years old burn out quite easily.  By the time 1:00pm came around, the kids were done with being wet and playing in the water and needed some downtime.  We decided to go back to the rooms, take showers and meet at the arcade at 2:30pm.  An hour of playing video games was just what the doctor ordered.  Sometimes you just got to go with the flow.

THE MOST FREAKY THING EVER!
We decided on an Italian restaurant close by (2.5 miles away) to eat for the dinner.  The Wilson's went to their car and Jeff went to get ours.  It was raining pretty heavily and he was bringing the car under the overhang for us to get in.  Jen calls me a minute later and tells me that their car won't start.  She asks if Jeff can take us to the restaurant and then come back and take her and the family.  "Great idea!" was my reply.  Jeff comes back a minute later from attempting to get our car and his head is shaking back and forth.  He tells me that our car is dead too.  Zilch, zip, zero, no life whatsoever.  Seriously?  What are the odds that would happen to both our cars at the same exact time!?!?!?!

Obviously this was a pretty big sign that we shouldn't go out to dinner.  In a very funny scene, Jeff and Ryan go up to the front desk together and tell the check-in person that BOTH of their cars won't start and can someone help them get it jumped.  They sent a maintenance guy with a tool to jump the cars and get them started again.  Jeff and Ryan then take the next 30 minutes to drive around and get the cars charged.

Jen came up with a fabulous idea to order take-out from the restaurant we were going to visit.  Jeff could drive me there, pick up the food and make our way back to the hotel, all without turning off the car.  Jen took the kids up to her room and within 20 minutes we had dinner ready for us all to eat.  It ended up working out pretty well.  Dinner was relaxed and it was still nice being all together.

Meanwhile Jeff isn't handling the idea of my car not working properly very well.  He would like to leave at 8:00am the next morning and make our way back home so that my car can get looked at as early as possible. This way if something is wrong with it, the mechanic will have the majority of the day to fix it.  I obviously, was on a very different page as him with my intent to leave.  While him and Ryan were getting the cars jump started, I went to the front desk and requested a later check-out time than the one they give you.  I figured we could go to the water park for a 1.5 hours in the morning, come back to the room to take showers and finish packing.  Check out of the hotel at 12:00pm (instead of 11:00am) and then play a quick round of putt-putt before hitting the road.  Jeff and I came to great compromise and we decided he would take the car to get looked at in Williamsburg and try to get it fixed locally.  I could take the kids to the water park and enjoy the last few hours we had at Great Wolf Lodge.

We identified a Honda Dealership just 2.5 miles away and found out they opened at 8:00am.  Jeff was happier knowing he would be getting the car looked at and I was happy knowing we could go back to the water park one last time.

Did the car start the next morning when Jeff went to take it for service?  Was it a ridiculously expensive repair that kept us in Williamsburg all day long waiting for it to get fixed?  Or, was it something incredibly minor and Jeff made it back to the water park just 10 minutes after they opened at 9:00am?  Stay tuned for the final recap of Our Great Wolf Adventure.