Great Wolf Lodge - part 1

We got to Niagara Falls precisely 6 hours after we left Ottawa. I note this because the online trip tik said it would take 5 hours and 13 minutes but Ken’s estimate was 6 hours. There was heavy traffic as we left Ottawa, even though we put off leaving until after 6:00 and then construction in Toronto. There might have been other problems that Reid and I slept through.

My first impression of the hotel - Great Wolf Lodge - was that it looked like a giant log cabin. As I went through the entryway to check-in, a wolf howled and I grinned knowing Ken would have something smart to say. He managed to keep quiet through the lobby with mechanical animals and more “rustic” wood furniture than I knew existed and even as we walked to our room along corridors with carpeting that featured bears, wolves, totem poles and leaves. I think it was the wolf silhouettes on the wall sconces that broke him and he said, “I didn’t think you get to Florida in 6 hours. This place is tacky.”. It is very “faux” but in a fun way.

We got into our room at 12:30 and Reid didn’t want to go to sleep. I think she was intimidated by our little in-room log cabin. Finally, I let her watch cartoons to entice her to the cabin with the light off so Ken could try to get to sleep.

Reid and I explored the lobby this morning, after the mandatory ride on the luggage cart (her dad taught her that). There is a bear, moose and tree that talk when you place your hand in the handprint associated with them. We sat on a couple of different types of chairs and a couch at Reid’s direction, which is a nice way of saying she bossed me.

We went to the Antler Shanty Grub Shack (a cafeteria-style restaurant) for breakfast to let Daddy sleep in. Reid insisted on serving herself. She managed to get about two tablespoons of scrambled eggs onto her plate and, after numerous attempts, she decided I could squeeze the tongs to get a hotdog (sausage) onto her plate. Of course, she had to carry her plate to the table. Midway back, not quite one tablespoon of eggs tipped onto the floor along with her sausage. She got the sausage back onto her plate but I wouldn’t let her pick up the eggs (I have *some* standards :+). Two-thirds of the way back not quite one tablespoon of eggs tipped onto the floor along with her sausage. Again the sausage was rescued but not the eggs. I offered to share eggs off of my plate but Reid calmly told me that she had her own and she did, approximately one teaspoon of them.

Wiley, the wolf mascot, stopped by our table just before we left. Reid finds mascots to be intimidating and a bit scary. Given my own clown phobia, I understand where she is coming from. Since he left, she has talked about him a lot. Distance makes me brave, too.

Time to get into our bathing suits and head to the waterpark.

This entry was posted on September 27, 2006 at 6:44 am and is filed under Vacation, Daddy, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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