Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City

Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City

Todd Swank's Diary Entries for July 5 - July 8, 2012

We always try to get with my sister, Tracy Mohar, and her family for the 4th of July.  Since we were going to Clear Lake this year for the 4th, we decided to meet them the next day in Kansas City, Missouri.  It's a good halfway point between Minneapolis and Dallas.  And there's fake moose, bears, and beavers there.

We stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City.  It wasn't until we arrived that we heard it described as a "Classic Great Wolf Lodge".  It was still very nice, but it is an older facility so they lacked some of the really cool features of the newer water parks like big lazy rivers, fancy wave pools, or really nutty water slides.  But they did have water we could get into which was nice.

They had water slides, but they didn't really do much except slide you from the top to the bottom.  We like slides that spin us round and round and upside down so we emerge at end like we'd just been through a Pure Water Torture Hell Ride.  Now that's good family fun!

The one redeeming feature they had was this colorful creature that was both challenging and exhilarating to climb onto and ride.  We spent hours together trying to get on it's back at the same time as trying to push other people off that dared want to sit next to us.  I think I hurt a couple of 5 year olds pretty badly, but that's what they get when they think they're going to be "The King of the Snake" while I'm in the pool!

Grandma had a nice time hanging out at the pool with her children and grandchildren, but she did make notice that it was pretty dang hot outside.  My car thermometer said it was 111 degrees outside and I heard on the news that a nearby soccer stadium was close to 120 degrees on the field.  Hopefully, Kansas City will get that fixed before the next time we come to town. 

To avoid the heat, we ended up spending a lot of time in various air conditioned restaurants.  We really enjoyed Figlio and the Yard House.  We had a lot of people tell us that we needed to eat BBQ while we were in Kansas City and we were excited to do that.  Until we remembered that we don't like BBQ.  So that went out the window.

The boys don't really give a crap where we are.  As long as they are hanging out with their cousins, Life is Good!

We had a blast stopping by the local T REX restaurant.  We really like going to that place to check out the prehistoric creatures, but we didn't want to eat there.  It costs a lot of money to eat while looking at rubber dinosaurs.

In the Parking Lot we saw a race car.  We didn't get to ride it or anything, but it sure was fun standing next to it for a minute.

  Gander Mountain fulfilled our cravings for watching large animals brutally kill one another.  We were happy to get that out of our systems.

Luke, Avery, Lauren, and Brittany's birthdays all fall within a few days of each other, so we celebrated them with some flaming cupcakes.

We also gave them each a can of silly string and let them go nuts on one another.  Everyone ended up happy about it with the possible exception of Brittany.

It was great to spend a few days with these guys and we really can't wait until we have the chance to do it again!