We spent Monday morning at the indoor water
park near the hotel. Not a safe place for a phone or other camera so your only
picture is this one taken from the lobby or the few on this website.
You are
looking at the wave pool, which Simeon loved at the time. He is totally
unafraid of getting his face wet although he was disconcerted at having his
feet washed out from under him and being unable to stand. He recovered and plunged in again and again, but it must have affected him more than we
realized because sleeping in the car on the way home, he kept jolting awake
saying, “Not the waves! No waves!”
A “river” ran through the park. Erika and I
rode inner tubes down it. Simeon watched excitedly while we passed beneath a
waterfall, but it was near the end of the morning before he got up the courage
to do it himself with his daddy.
There were a couple junior water slides,
mounted water guns, and places where water tumbled down. Simeon quickly figured
out that to reach the water slide without getting doused he needed to wait
until the bucket filled and tipped over and then dash to the steps while it
refilled. Later he decided that standing directly under where the bucket would
dump was just as much fun.
Steve had stayed behind in the hotel, but
Dan, Erika and I took turns watching Simeon and checking out the adult
attractions. Believe it or not, I had never been on one of the big slides where
you ride a raft. I have always believed that “I’m scared” is not enough reason
to say no, so I went with Erika. Wow! It was thrilling. When “the Tornado”
opened at noon, we did that too. We were only two on a four-man raft. It swung
around so that I was entering a black hole backwards. Pretty scary not being
able to see where I was going. Of course, the second time I was facing
forward where I COULD see where I was going. I decided that backwards was
better! At the bottom of the black hole we sloshed wildly up one side and down
the other before sliding out into a pool at the bottom. Lots of fun, but that
one would definitely have given Simeon nightmares!
In the far left corner was a whole spa of
water massages. Erika and I, of course, had to try each one to see which muscles
it massaged. Erika’s favourite was the neck and shoulders massage where you
stood under a jet of water so forceful I thought I would be bruised this
morning. My favourite was one that bubbled up all around you, making it hard
not to float away. Pushing aside plastic flaps, you could swim outside to a few
more pools. The river had an outdoor option as well, but that was closed. The
outdoor pool has not yet opened. Although it is hot and sweaty in Seoul, this
is the mountains and it is still pretty cool.
To someone who has visited an American
water park, those attractions probably sound pretty normal, but there were some
unique aspects. This being Korea, we had hardly paid our fee when we were
required to remove shoes. There were shoe lockers off the lobby. Your locker
number was stamped on your ticket. The same key matched a locker in the locker
room for clothes and bags. The key was on a spring cord that fit around your
wrist. Anything (like required life jackets) that you bought or rented inside
was charged to that wrist key.
The other thing that would not be typical
in an American water park was that shirts and even shorts were encouraged for
modesty’s sake. Almost everyone wore them over their bathing suits. Hats are required—either a swim cap (not
my favourite, but not unreasonable in a public pool) or a baseball cap. How my
baseball cap protected the pool, I’m not quite sure. I was asked to remove it
for the water slides. Let’s just say that swimming in a baseball cap was kind
of weird.
We drove home mid-afternoon via Camp
Humphreys where Dan picked up his car. The scenery was fabulous. Simeon fell asleep inhis umpteenth viewing of "Red Dusty," the second Planes movie. Today will be
laundry and down time.
