Grandma Week 2012: Day 2, The Aquatic Center or Poop Happens

Isn't having a smoking section in a restaurant like having a peeing section in a swimming pool? –Unknown

My mom likes to plan a stay-cation for her grandkids every summer. Today, we went to a really fun indoor/outdoor aquatic center. The outdoor pool has fun for everyone, a shallow children's play area and a deeper swimming area. Today, it was windy and overcast, so going outside wasn't an option. It wasn't a big deal because inside there are two pools. One is a lap pool, with a diving board and the shallowest area is about 3½ feet deep. The other pool is larger, but doesn't get any deeper than 3½ feet and is very kid-friendly. There is an ankle-deep play area with a small slide and lots of water spouts that the kids can turn on and off. Opposite of that, there is a bigger slide that twists and turns and the water is just deep enough for a safe landing, but not so deep that beginning swimmers can't navigate safely to the edge of the pool. There is also a little tide pool that carries you round and round on its current, and then there is a small swimming area.

We always have a great time when we go there. I decided to leave my camera in the locker and have some splashy fun before taking pictures. I totally blew my chance, because about 20 minutes after we got in, somebody pooped in the pool. The bigger pool. The kid-friendly pool. Everyone was ordered out of both pools and we watched for about 10 minutes as the poor lifeguards used skimmers to try and clean up.

While clean-up efforts continued in the kid-friendly pool, the lap pool was deemed fit to reenter and we headed in. So did everyone else. We brought blow-up inter-tubes and had enough for all the kids to have one. We had them hold hands and pulled this fun little train of tubes around the pool, snaking in and out between all the other swimmers, much to their annoyance. Clean-up efforts in the kid-friendly pool were not yielding the required results and and after about 30 minutes of making ourselves a general nuisance in the crowded the lap pool, we got out to have a little snack. As we were eating, we noticed that the lap pool had been cleared and that lifeguards had their skimmers out again.

As time wore on, we realized that the kid-friendly pool would not be opening again. And the more we thought about it, the more we decided that we did not want to get back into the lap pool, which was just getting ready to re-open. We packed it up and called it a day and the only pictures I got were in the locker room. Poop happens, right? You can choose to let it ruin your day, or you can make the best of the situation.

{Left to right: Pixie, Mouse & LadyBug}

Quote of the day:
Pixie: Some people are just happier not swimming.

And who could resist this adorable little Cheetos face, even if I didn't quite get the photo in focus?

{Woodland Sprite}

We spent as much time out of the water as we did in today, so we asked the staff if there was anything they could do for us. They were able to issue us return passes, which was nice. As I mentioned yesterday, we're doing Grandma Week in two parts this year, so we'll get to give it another try.

That's all for Grandma Week until mid-August.