It Happens (Our Splash Park Debut)

Took Annie to the Aquarium's new Splash Park today. Apparently, it's been doing big business since its Memorial Weekend kickoff. Justin, a friend who works at the Aquarium, reported average attendance of 7,000 people a day(!!) over the 4th of July weekend, which is more than 2,000 more than the highs of spring break, which is just to say that the splash park is out-shooting even the Aquarium's most optimistic projections.

So you can imagine our relief when, despite our initial concerns that we'd be stampeded by pint-sized, water-crazed hooligans, there was an eerie and unexpected internal order to the chaos as we joined it. As if the children were exchanging invisible, unspoken messages between them so that disputes were minimal and fun was had by all. Annie and I played with a water-spraying turtle, we ducked through circles of water-fire and raced around irregularly times water springs. We watched the older kids wait for the uber-bucket to periodically pound them with water. Once Annie became comfortable, it was fun to sneak away and watch her interact, make decisions, and share with the other kiddos. Bek even caught some pictures.


It was all going so well. Then, unexpectedly, a 'CODE BROWN', discretely signaled by a whistle and an indication to leave the water area immediately, sent us to the showers. Code brown - let the reader understand - which revealed the order in the chaos to be illusory at best. And also explained the smell. Vile. Oh well. We cleaned up and made our way to the otters and turtles, said our goodbyes, and packed up the car. Off to Freebird's for dinner and Camille's for dessert. All in all, not a bad afternoon. But funny and awkward, in its own beautiful way.