Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Day 5 - Big Kahuna's

Dad took us to Big Kahuna's Water Park at 2:00 to get 'twilight' tickets. However, just like two years before, we had arrived an hour early - twilight didn't start until 3:00.

When that happened two years before, we went to get ice cream. So, since history was already repeating itself, we might as well follow through.

We drove to Cold Stone Creamery only to find that it had gone out of business. So, we headed back in the other direction looking for ice cream while we headed to The Track to get tickets for that day (we had forgotten to collect, yesterday). On the way, I spotted "Shakes" off the road. We decided to check it out.

We wanted indoor seating, except Shakes was like a Bruster's - you can drive through or order and sit outside. It was really hot, but we found a picnic table with shade and decided to sit there.

I ordered the fudge brownie concrete. Rachel got a strawberry concrete. Helen got a Reese's concrete, and Meredith got an ice cream sundae. Shake's does custard, and oh my gosh, it's amazing. The texture was just... wow. It was delicious and totally worth sitting outside for.

Still having time to kill, we went to Sunsations to look for airbrush designs. We had gotten our airbrush shirts from Alvin's Island the past three years, but we realized that was enough time to collect all of their designs, so we were looking for something new.

We got to Big Kahuna's exactly at 3:00. We debated on how much money we needed to purchase a locker. Dad was gonna give us a five, then he accidentally gave us two fives, then Meredith said, "Well, what if we need ones?" So, we ended up with twelve dollars.

I went to get us a locker and it cost... $12! Of course, we got five dollars back when we returned our key. But, still... that's an expensive locker. And we couldn't even take our key with us because you aren't allowed to have metal on waterslides, so we just left the key in the locker and didn't lock it. We decided that next time, we'll just set our stuff in a chair somewhere since we aren't even locking our locker (though I do think that someone is less likely to tamper with stuff in lockers than in chairs).

Now, speaking of the no metal rule, if you're going to Big Kahuna's - or any water park, for that matter - you need to wear a bathing suit with no metal clasps or zippers. Two years ago, a lifeguard asked to feel Helen's swimsuit to make sure that the plastic buckle wasn't metal (we're thinking that was his excuse to feel her up).

So, free of all belongings, we decided to head to the back of the park, which is usually less crowded. We went to the attraction with the pink tubes (Raging Rhino River). You can ride the pink tubes down the slide that dumps off into the lazy river. In order to ride, you need a tube from the lazy river. Getting tubes for all of us was difficult. All of these big dads were at the stairs, fighting over tubes. We decided we'd have better luck going through the river and trying to collect a tube along the way. Helen found a tube our first lap, but that was it. We tried again and had no luck. Most of the big dads were gone, so we decided to try the stairs, again. I stepped out and grabbed a tube from someone and went up to stand by Helen. This left Meredith and Rachel, who were having no luck. I left my tube with Helen and went back down and got a tube and threw it to Meredith. Rachel got her own. Finally, after about half an hour, we had tubes.

We decided that once down the slide was not enough for our efforts, so we floated around the river and went up to do it, again. We then gave up our tubes... to no one. There was now no wait for tubes.

We decided to do Jamanji. It was about a ten minute wait, and the slide didn't seem near as scary as it had in the past. I always get a mega-wedgie coming off this ride.

We got into Thunder River and got off on the other side to do the Maui Pipeline Slides. It was a long wait, but I found this kid in line who looked exactly like a little version of my friend, Michael, so I was having fun people-watching. These big, possibly drunk, guys ahead of us decided to run and jump to go down the slides. I was surprised the lifeguard didn't blow her whistle (the lifeguards here are whistle-happy). One of the guys was pretty big, and his splash hit a car driving by (these slides are right in front of the road)! Meredith and I went down at the same time. There's one enclosed red slide, and two white slides. The little kid in front of me took the red slide, so Mere and I had the white slides. I don't care for these because you actually get air while going down, and it hurts your back where they're joined together. You land in 8 1/2 water, so you have to be able to swim to go down this slide. Once again, I got a mega wedgie. We decided not to do this ride, again.

Next was our favorite - Tiki River Run. You collect tubes at the base (single or double) and carry them all the way up to go down. It's better to do a double tube, because then you have more weight and can go faster. We did this slide three times in a row before taking taking a slide into the lazy river.

We went over through the "Temple of Doom" into Bombs Away Bay. We then decided to try Jamanji, again. I got a mega wedgie, again. Then, we went back over to Tiki River Run and did that with little wait (it was after 5:00, now) several times in a row.

When we were at the top of Tiki River Run, I spotted what I thought looked like a wave simulator. So, we decided to go check it out and found the brand new "Honolulu Half Pipe." Now, I'm no good at this, and neither was anyone else. They wanted me to do it, but I didn't feel like waiting in the line to get knocked out in twenty seconds. So, we headed back over to the Raging Rhino River and did the only kiddie slide that was open around it. Then, we got into the river and just floated around tubeless a few times.

We got out, returned to our locker to collect our belongings, and left the park to find Dad. I also got the $5 deposit back on the key.

Now, Big Kahuna's isn't that impressive. It's not that big, and there aren't any really awesome slides. The only slide I really enjoy is Tiki River Run. The lifeguards are also some of the rudest I've ever met. They blow their whistles at anything and everything. And then, most of them don't speak English (or if they do, they don't bother to), so they'll flick their finger at you and you're like, "What? What did I do? Really?" The few lifeguards that do speak English will hit on you. Obviously, they're very bored with their jobs. It costs $84 for the four of us - and one of us had free admission. I don't think you need to spend more than three hours here. Twilight is the only way I'd go.

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