A Day In Hawaii

That's right, today Nicholas, Ryan, Cristina and I went to Hawaii.  Okay, it was Hawaii Waterpark and although the name might be a bit of a stretch, it certainly was better than we expected.  The indoor waterpark is located at the Royal Ocean World in Fu Shun and although we had been there a while ago we only went to the aquarium portion of it.  Today we wanted to try out Hawaii.  I had been going to take the kids by myself but thought Cristina might like to join us.  I'm so glad she did!  You definitely need a child:adult ratio of 1:1 at this place.  At least for the first visit or on a busy day.

The place is very large for being indoors and it even has a beach area with loads of beautiful sand.  We played there first for quite a long time and although we had a lot of people taking pictures and bugging Ryan, it wasn't too crazy.  We didn't get swarmed or anything.  After we were there for a little while they turned on the waves in the 'ocean' part of the beach.  It was pretty cool.  Just before that I had gone on a little excursion to get the kids some tubes for playing in the water and shovels for the sand.  Nicholas laid back in his tube in the shallow part and he started riding the waves a little bit.  I decided to go out with him and it was a good thing I did.  By the time I caught him he was in water over his head.  I couldn't believe how quickly it carried him away. 

There were also some really cool water slides here.  There was one that Ryan couldn't get enough of watching.  Two people sit on a double tube to go down the slide.  First you go through a pretty tame curve then all of a sudden you drop really quickly down an incline which sends you up another and when you get to the top of that second incline, you are almost at a ninety degree angle.  You drop back down that incline and onto a straight part that bumps you around a bit.  Another water ride looked like a giant hot air balloon.  You enter at the top and go around and around until you get to the bottom where you fall out into a pool.  Some people enter the water feet first but others would go in head or bum first.  The really interesteing thing about this one is that they actually have someone in the pool to help the people when they drop into the water.  I don't know if maybe someone drowned doing this ride but we stood and watched them for a bit and when they came up out of the water most of them were quite disoriented would have had a lot of trouble if the swimmer hadn't been there to grab them.  Cristina said that they have this type of slide in Mexico but without anyone to help you.

They did have a few kids water slides and Nick had a really good time on those.  They ran into another really big pool that was filled with fountains.  There were a lot of other areas to play in but we didn't make it to all of them today.  We had decided that we would go watch the dolphin show, even though it wasn't that great the first time.  All Ryan could talk about seeing was the dolphin show and I used it several times throughout the morning as bribery.  "Ryan, don't run away from me or we won't go see the dolphins".  He has a terrible habit lately of taking off to wherever he wants to go.  So, we dragged Nicholas away from the water park and got dressed.  I should mention that the locker rooms are also quite nice.  Each paying adult gets an electronic key on an elastic band with a number to a corresponding locker and they give you flip flops to wear.  The thing about locker rooms here in China is that no one is at all shy about walking around completely naked.  It's not a big deal unless everyone is already staring at you because you are different, even before you take your clothes off.  Nicholas would only change in the bathroom stall and Cristina didn't even bother.    I just did it really quickly.  While we were getting ready to go a woman, completely naked, came and stood about two feet in front of Nicholas, staring at him.  Normally I tell him not to stare especially because, even though he is only four, he looks older and it doesn't seem right for an older kid to stare at naked women in a ladies locker room.  However, this time I said to him (you must remember that almost no one here speaks English so they don't understand what I'm saying)  "Why is this woman is standing in front of us naked and starring.  I wonder when she'll leave.  You go ahead and stare back at her all you want."  It wasn't long after that she left us alone.  I dropped a water bottle on the floor so I bent down to retrieve it and on my way back up I came face to ass with another Chinese lady.  Too close for my comfort.  Contrary to popular opinion, the people in China, at least in the northern part, are not particularly short.  I am probably only slightly taller than average.  Why am I telling you this?  Well, as we were trying to leave the locker room, poor Cristina who is somewhat shorter than average, was almost run into by a tall, naked Chinese lady who was in quite a hurry to get somewhere.  I asked Cristina if she wanted a boob for lunch, it was that close to hitting her in the face.  I hope she doesn't mind me sharing that story.  None of us enjoyed the locker room portion of our day, it's just different here.  Another thing, the guys here really like their speedos.  I mean all the guys, every shape and size.

Anyway, like I was saying, we left the water park with the promise of a dolphin show.  We walked to a building we thought we would lead us to the show but we couldn't get in that way.  We tried another route and still no luck.  Third time's the charm!  Well, sort of.  We had the right door, the one leading to the Artic exhibit first, but when we tried to go in the woman said our tickets were no good for the show.  I guess I bought the wrong ones.  Ryan, at two, didn't quite get that so he took off through the gate and headed for the animals.  The lady let me go in and get him but I had to chase him down and drag him out.  What really surprised me is that he remembered from the last time exactly where he had to go to get to the dolphin show from the Arctic exhibit.  He was heading for the right stairs when I caught him. 

Since we coudn't get into the show we sat on the steps, had a snack and called Tian Ye to come get us.  (You will notice that I don't have any crazy driver stories these days.  Isn't that wonderful?)  Anyway, we went out the gate and headed for the van but Ryan, who was still determined to see the dolphins, took off up a bunch of steps to the Arctic exhibit entrance we used the last time we went to the aquarium.  I took my stuff to where Tian Ye was waiting and went after him.  I didn't hurry as I knew he wouldn't get too far by himself.  As I made my way there everyone that saw me pointed to the direction that he had gone.  They always seem to know that he's mine!  When I saw him he was being followed by a lady worker and when he spied me he took off for the animals again.  Luckily one of the other women workers managed to stop him at the turnstyle and held him for me.  He sure can move when he wants something.  We are considering getting a leash if he doesn't stop running away.

So that was our day in Hawaii.  Had I known that we couldn't get in to the dolphin show we would have stayed at the water park longer.  Ryan isn't too disappointed now, I told him we would go back.  It really wasn't that expensive and unlike the parks in Florida, there are no rules about bringing in your own food (at least none written in English).  Next time I will pack more food, less clothing and a different camera.  I ended up leaving mine in the locker when I realized just how much water and sand there was.  Luckily, Cristina had her little camera and she got some pictures.  I will post them when I can get a copy.  I got a few through the glass after we got dressed.

This was before we left for the water park.  He looks like such an angel.   Hah!

This is the balloon slide.  The pink and yellow one in the background is the double tube incline slide.

Speedos...

everywhere!

This evening when Tim got off work we went to The Mix C mall to Pizza Hut and my newest favorite store, Ole.  Tian Ye had supper with us and he offered again to come and cook for us.  We decided to take him up on the offer so he is coming over on Sunday.  We told him to bring his girlfriend but I'm not sure if he decided for or against that.  We will see!

Tomorrow is a girls shopping day for me!  After my massage of course.  Have a great day/night everyone!