Silverwood was fun. I imagine it is about the size Cedar Point was in the early/mid 70s before CP realized that roller coasters would be its ticket to fortunes. There are a few coasters at Silverwood, include what I call a real one (one that roller coaster entuhsiasts would actually ride) - in fact its the best coaster I've ever been on. Granted, I haven't been on one for 10 years (I think Incredible Hulk at Universal Orlando was the last real coaster I've been on), so I have no clue what's new out there there days. The rest of the park was what you'd expect - lots of rides and games for the kids - but it also has a large water park connected to it. One admission price gets you into both areas. The water park has two large wave pools, and Spencer and Garrett chose to spend most of there day there. Although we did get Spencer and Garrett on one of the big roller coasters. While Garrett insisted on going, afterword he sputtered that it was too scary and he wasn't going on again. Sadly, no pictures, we didn't want to take a camera in and lose it.
I wasn't sure what to expect from Coeur d'Alene. It's probably the best known lake in the Pacific Northwest, so I imagined something 10 times busier than Lake Chelan. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't very busy - of course we timed it so we wouldn't be there over a weekend. Then again, northern Idaho is chock full of lakes, and Lake Pend O'Reille is only 20 miles north, and Priest Lake is another half hour north. What I was surprised was the lack of watersports right on the lake. I could only find one Jet Ski rental, and they didn't rent by the hour (half a day minimum), and the kayak rentals brought your kayaks to you and you had to wait for them to pick them up. I didn't take either of them up while we were there, instead just swam in the lake with the kids at two different beaches. And got sunburnt real, real bad.
There wasn't a lot of water activity, much to my surprise. Seems much more like a residential area where the residents enjoy lakefront views. Total opposite of Lake Chelan where everything is a resort, campground, or hotel. Not bad, just different. We had a great time and we will go back soon.
The month of August saw the family take in a Mariners game against the good guys (White Sox). The good guys went yard in the top of the ninth for three runs to beat the home team, in what was largely a boring game. We went during the week and Garrett had his run of the cool play area out in center field.
I also took Spencer to the Seahawks home opening pre-season game. Unfortunately, the pre-game announcement of "what to do in case of an emergency" dragged on for a while, Spencer took it all in, and was scared to death the entire first half. "Dad, should we go to the emergency exit?" "Dad, when is the emergency going to be here?" "Dad, we should sit closer to the emergency exit." "Dad, do you know what to do in case of an emergency?" "Dad..." Finally I put the kid's mind at ease and we left at halftime. At least Matt Hasselbeck through a couple TD passes that Spencer got to see.
Finally, I took a day off work this week and the family went to Wild Waves in Federal Way. The kids had been there a few times (Garrett loves telling the world that this was his third trip there), and it's basically a smaller version of Silverwood. It used to be a Six Flags, which is odd because I've always thought of Six Flags as big theme parks. On the way back we caught a couple periods of the Seattle Thunderbirds scrimmage at the Showare Center.
So Monday Spencer starts at his new school in Bellevue. Not sure how the logistics will work out, I will likely drive him to school every day and he will take the bus home. There's a bus stop out in Issaquah so apparently a lot of kids outside Bellevue attend. Will cause some havoc at work because I'm used to getting to the office early so I can get out at a decent hour, this will throw a wrench in that. But I'm excited for Spencer and I'm glad that even with our late start in talking to BCS we were able to get Spencer in.
swimming in lake coeur d'alene
the boys thought the mudgy the moose statues around town were cool
spencer worried about some stupid impending emergency about to strike
i've taught garrett how to cross his eyes.
