Wet 'n Wild

Bit of a wash out kind of a day. Made me sort of homesick for all things summer and Scottish.

Another water park today, supposedly as a bit of a chill-out, but ended up more frustrating than anything else. Not at all enjoyable standing in line, in the blazing sun for a good part of it, for over two hours for less than a minute's worth of entertainment. The pool's were too crowded and too warm, more like a tourist soup than a cool relaxing dip, trying to navigate bare foot between places was at times a painful experience on the extremely hot concrete and some of the attendants were unnecessarily crabbit. Not a patch on the first one we visited last week - Aquatica - and even the all day buffet was mince. Well, not mince - hot dogs, burgers or pulled pork and not much else and they didn't even allow you take any beverages back to your seat like the other park did.

And then the thunder and lightning started. Everything closed down and for two hours we hung around sheltering from an impressive tropical storm until we decided to make a run for it and head back to the car (even the parking's a pain as you've to negotiate four lanes of snarling traffic to get there and back - no walkway or underpass).

Even trying to amuse myself by taking photos didn't work as no matter how much you try not to look like a leering letch with a big lens it just doesn't work when everyone's wandering around with so much flesh (sometimes too much) on show. Nobody bats an eye when someone wields a point and shoot but with equipment the size of mine out in public, I just felt slightly exposed.*

So I sat on the sun terrace with my lens pointed over everyone's heads and my finger on the shutter button waiting for some lightning to strike. Dead easy over today, it was everywhere. This post's actually a couple of shots together; I caught the birds as they all flew off at one particularly nearby thunderclap and the lightning strikes were snapped a few minutes later from the same spot.

The best adrenaline rush of the day was the I-4 highway back as the rain bounced, the thunder clapped, the lightning zapped and Samantha stabbed at a non-existant brake pedal as drivers trying to save the bulbs in their headlights came at you from all angles across four lanes of near grid lock. Passed two accidents on the twelve mile stretch we drove. They really should turn this into an official theme park ride, they'd make a fortune.

Aquatica 1 - 0 Wet 'n Wild.

*behave yourselves.