The next day we got up bright and early for our trip to Wet & Wild. When I was a kid it was called Emerald Point, and the last time I went I got so burnt that my entire back was scabbed over. That was about eighteen years ago, but I will never forget my crispy turtle shell back. I'm not really a fan of the sun, and neither is Ben; this was a trip entirely for Henry's enjoyment. We stopped off for some breakfast at Bojangles in Siler City, taking our time, but we still arrived about a half hour before the park opened. While we stood in line we answered Henry's million of questions and perused the map with him. Then when we presented our tickets, they did a bag search and found a box of graham crackers, so I had to take them back to the car while Ben and Henry rented a locker. We're that nerdy family you see that all wear floppy hats and t-shirts and have eighteen layers of sunblock on. I was not ashamed in the slightest, though. It's fun to realize that any uneasiness about exposing white flabby thighs vanishes the moment you see the vast variety of humanity come to display their various hues and physiques, flattering or unflattering as they may be. So it was without trepidation that we set our white nerdy selves out upon the park. Henry's now tall enough to ride anything he wanted, and he wanted to ride down a slide first, so he ran up and randomly picked the one in the middle, dubbed, I noted belatedly, the Blue Streak. I followed after and knew immediately on that first plunge straight down that my little guy wasn't going to be too happy when I saw him next. It had been a little scary for him, so we decided to skip Dr. Von Dark's Tunnel of Terror and stuck with the gentler attractions. His favorite places were the kiddie pool with the submarine and the big one with the pirate ship. While at the pirate ship they found a large diamond that apparently fell out of someone's ring, but Ben got distracted when Henry jumped off the pirate ship into deep water and lost the diamond at the bottom of the pool. Oh, well. We managed to convince Henry to ride with us on a scary ride, all three of us in a float that went down a winding tube. Henry didn't like the look of things when we had to climb up a bunch of steps onto the platform where the ride started, and while he didn't love it, at the end of the day he went with us one more time. We stayed and sat in the shade to watch Ben ride down a hideously high, vertical drop water slide, but Ben chickened out and instead of going all the way to the top, took a lower, twisty tube slide down. Still, I figured he was pretty brave, since I wouldn't have gotten as high as the second or third landing beneath the first slide before losing my nerve. Henry decided to try the scary slides again, this time going down a gentler one. I followed, and then Ben came last. When Ben shot out of the tunnel, he accidentally dropped his glasses, so they had to stop the ride for about ten minutes while a lifeguard swam around on the bottom to retrieve them. Ben was embarrassed, Henry was bored, and I was ready to give up and buy Ben some new glasses. Luckily the glasses were found, happily putting an end to Ben's water slide adventures for the day. We spent some more time in the wave pool and the kiddie pools and by the end of the day we'd gone through the entire bottle of sunblock and I was completely exhausted. We went by Maggie's house for dinner and a little rest before heading home for the night.
Maybe a couple years from now we'll go back. To the water park, I mean. Maggie's wasn't so bad.
