Vacation so Far

So the best story so far belongs to Pooteewheet - I trust she'll publish it tomorrow, but vacation has been going well. We noted that in non-battleground states they don't care if gas is more than $2.00 a gallon. And today I got to see my first Alan Keyes lawn sign. I want to steal one so bad it's disturbing me.

I've spent a huge part of my time reading all about SQL Reporting Services while Pooteewheet drives, but not all our time is driving. Night number one was spent at the Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconsin Dells. We enjoyed the waterpark both last night and this morning. Eryn tried out a few slides (and not the smallest ones, slides with actual running water and curves) , rode the crooked creek on an innertube for two with Pooteewheet and me (and a nasty bandaid we kept trying to get away from), and played with a number of small fountains. She was not quite so impressed with the big bucket of water that dumped 700 gallons from four stories up about every five minutes. Fortunately, it would clang right before it dumped, so she'd get a panicked look on her face and run for the nearest parent, begging to be lifted out of the dumping's way. However, it didn't matter if she was right near it or halfway across the waterpark when that bell went off - she was looking for protection.

We also went to some kids' playground at the hotel that was four stories high and had 25,000 squishy foam balls you could drop in pots, in trees, shoot from guns, etc. Eryn liked crawling in the pots that were full of balls and hanging out while we bounced balls off of her. The real point seemed to be that if you registered your bracelet, you could run around accumlating points for putting certain colored squishy balls in certain contraptions. I noticed that one enterprising child had amassed 85,000+ points in one instance - considering that you seemed to get about 30-150 points per action, he must have been running around that playground forever. I now have new goals for Eryn - she will not be the 85,000 point child and she will not be on the list of high scores for children "15 and up".

By the way, Eryn officially left the state (of Minnesota) for the first time yesterday and today she entered her third state. I don't think she noticed the difference, particularly since we brought the "ooks" (the Wiggles) and a portable DVD player with us.