As mentioned in the previous post, we scoped out the indoor water park of the West Edmonton Mall on July 10, so as to decide whether it was worth it to bring our swim suits on our second allotted mall day. It was, so, we did. The thing about water parks is that we always have to pair up in the family, to make sure no one gets lost. The general pairing is girls and boys. I got sick of that pretty darn fast. Melanie is my sister, and I love her, but she is the biggest, whiniest and the most spoiled of any of us. Did I mention wimpiest? Every two slides we went down, she would be asking me to go back into the wave pool. But not in the deep end, where all the fun waves are. She wanted to be able to sit in the pool and still be head above the water. I gave up. I dropped her off with the boys and went to complain to Dad, who was sitting off to the side. Mom offered to come slide with me, but sort of gave up for some reason, I don't quite remember why. I was stuck with Melody again. Over the course of the day, I was paired with everyone except for Jon. Long story short, I wasn't having much fun. But, my complaining got me somewhere, because Dad let me go off on my own.
I started with a hamster-ball type ride. You were put into a plastic ball with a hole in the end and a little water in the bottom. You see, the ball spun and you slid along the side, all the while spinning like a hamster being tortured. It was a blast!
But my favorite ride of all time, in the history of the world, like, ever, was the one I call the "Rainbow Slide". It wasn't just a ride, it was a full-on game! See, first you get in this massive lineup for a tube, or a board, or whatever you call it. After 15 minutes, you get your own board and start the awkward ascent up the stairs with a board slightly too big to carry under your arm, and slightly too heavy to carry on your head. You follow the signs up the stairs, (signs, because there are entrances to the stairs everywhere, as well as turns to take) and place your board on a special little stand. This stand reads codes on the back and sides of the board and logs you in. Then, the fun starts. You make yourself an account with a nickname and a level of difficulty. You can choose if the lights are mild or wild (whatever that means) and the type of music played during the ride (which explained why the radio started playing songs, then switched them to something completely different partway through). I adopted the nickname CRISPYKAT for some obscure reason and firmly pressed on the "Rock" button for music. I wasn't quite familiar with the game, but started to figure it out halfway up the next set of stairs. Each board had four buttons on it, each with a different color. As you rode down, there would be flashing lights overhead of different colors. Music would play, and the point of the game was to press the button as you passed underneath the light that coordinated with the button. The more accurate your pressing, the more points you received.
As I sat in my board on my first run, a scanner on the back of the slide read the code my board had on its back. The screen above me showed my statistics, that this was my first go as CRISPYKAT and I had no high score. The speakers beside me then started the song randomly selected from my category: "I Can't Drive 55" by Sammy Hagar.
My first run was somewhat embarrassing, but I got back in line to wait for another board. Over the course of my entire time there, I went down the ride 7 times, but two of those times didn't count for my leveling up, for some reason. Level 5 was a lot higher than almost everyone else in that room.
I can't say for sure why that ride appealed to me so much. I guess it was because all day, all I had heard was crappy pop music, and was going a little nutty. And this was a way for me not to get too tired from going up and down stairs but also have fun. Heck, that ride ruled!
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