Four thumbs up for the Grand Lodge and Waterpark at Mall of America

We are all trashed, but it's a good trashed. We had a great time and would highly recommend a visit. We paid $169 for one night--the rooms were spacious and well decorated; they had a wide-screened tv, microwave, fridge, and a safe---but included in that was 4 passes into the waterpark from 4:00 pm check-in day to 4:00 pm check-out day. Passes themselves can cost $25 per person, so the room comes out very reasonable.

The waterpark itself was great. We've been to some where the heat, humidity and overwhelming presence of chlorine were somewhat unbearable. This place is huge, but very well ventilated and bright, and the chemicals didn't burn your nose and eyes. All the slides were fun, and seemed longer than other parks. They had some fun features like a wave pool and a place where you could boogey board on a jet-stream of water, that was fun. (to watch)

With that being said, let me make this comment---they put a man on the moon, they've created microchips the size of a pinhead that can hold the same amount of information found in 1 million books, they can re-attach severed limbs back onto a body---why can't 'they' design a waterpark with an escalator to take you back to the top. They had one slide, the big one where the big circular raft carried about 6 people, that had a conveyor belt to take the raft back up to the top; it's an inanimate object for crying out loud, it doesn't get tired. I could not believe the climb to get up there, I thought we were going to the top of the IDS Center. You know it's bad when the twelve year old kid behind you is winded and complaining about the climb up. You didn't hear anything from the parents because they were all checking their pulses to see if a coronary was imminent.

Anyway, Mocha-momma and I won the two-man tube race against our kids. We won 2/3, but the lifeguard had to call all three because they were so close. We actually stayed upright on two of the races, but we did have one major wipeout that sent us both flying in a massive heap of flesh and tube. (that was the one when I was in front, I wonder if that had anything to do with it)

Now we have one night to recuperate, and tomorrow we're off to a campground. It doesn't sound like the weather is suppose to be great; but we'll have fun.