Road Trip - Tyler, TX

For spring break, I had checked out the Great Wolf Lodge resort near Dallas (booked) and beach-front condos in Galveston (rain in forecast). Ultimately, we ended up taking a road trip to Tyler, Texas, east of Dallas, to visit an indoor waterpark. At least we knew that if there was rain or cold, we'd still have a good time. 

We coordinated this trip around the Traveler activity badge that Jacob needed to earn for his crossover to Boy Scouts at the end of the month. We looked at different routes on the internet and printed a map. We also used an old-fashioned, folds-out-to-an-unmanagable-size paper map of Texas for Jacob to help navigate and learn about map legends. We passed by through lots of small towns on the way and really got that Route 66 experience seeing the old main streets, dilapidated buildings and barns, roadside antique malls and junkyards. We even saw "Mater!"

We made it to Tyler and stayed at a Marriott. The next day, we drove to Lake Palestine to the WaterPark at the Villages. The lines were long and the place was packed, but my kids loved it. There was a big climbing structure with lots of faucets and sprayers, slides and a giant bucket on top that emptied every 10 minutes or so. There was a lazy river, a wave pool, two body slides for bigger kids and adults and two slides where you sat on tubes. 

On the plus side, I thought the place was pretty clean, the lifeguards were plentiful and on top of things, and it had activities suitable for Jacob on down to Lucas. It wasn't so big that I couldn't find Jacob, Sarah or Ethan quickly, but they had freedom to go where they wanted. There were lots of families and not too many rowdy teenagers (who would have been disappointed with the place after an hour). The myriad of tattoos on display were umm... colorful? 

The negatives - it was crowded (Spring Break, duh) but the lazy river and wave pool appeared over capacity at times and there was still a line of people waiting outside to get in the park! The small cafe had huge lines...we didn't eat lunch until almost 2 pm and still waited 30 minutes. The food was overpriced but we expected that. 

Lucas loved this little green slide. It was an open slide that curved in a circle and had a big landing chute. He must have gone down the slide 100 times that day. Perfect for him! 

I would go there again if we had another reason to be in Dallas or Tyler, but probably wouldn't make the trip just to visit the water park. I took most of these photos in the first 10 minutes of us being there and then hid the camera in a locker the rest of the day - too nervous about it getting wet!