Several weeks ago my family and I decided to take an excursion.  Fed up with the chill of winter and the doldrums of shortened days, we did the closest thing to a tropical vacation we could think of.  We ventured to an indoor water park.

Our destination of Choice was CoCo Key Water Park in Waterbury, CT.  There are CoCo Keys across the country (see Becca’s recent column about her experiences!); each is managed independently, so the facilities may vary from place to place, but there are a few qualities that I’m sure apply to the experience anywhere.

First and foremost if you are someone who does not have the patience to wiggle your way around lots of running children, yelling parents, splashing teens and folks who cut in the inner tube line, then this is not the experience for you.  Seriously – it’s a lot of intense human behavior in relatively small, but very loud space and you need to be able to have a Zen-like ability to roll with it.  I have a finite amount of patience, but I was able to last for a couple of hours at a time.  Fortunately, we were staying at the hotel attached to the water park, so when we’d had enough we could cut out.

Truthfully, amidst the chaos, there is fun to be had. (Read more…)