6:30AM came early that Tuesday. We knew today was set to be another scorcher at 93 before
10:00AM and a high of 108 for the day.
Tai Chi is a martial art that involves deep breathing,
balance, and flexibility. It is
supposed to calm the mind and focus one's energy. It's similar to yoga but without holding the positions for
so long. It's more fluid. But should develop the same core
strength. In theory when you see a
bunch of people in the park doing Tai Chi. You should be able to run off and
push them without having them fall over.
This is due to the "roots" one works with when performing Tai
Chi. I am suggesting you do this.
No, leave the 80-year-olds alone.
The cows will feel neglected.
Marilyn enjoyed the Tai Chi but it didn't hold its appeal
for too long with the kids. They
took to climbing trees, walking through sprinklers, and watching
squirrels. All of this was
expected and planned for. In fact
one member of my parents' Tai Chi group, a 82-year-old Japanese woman named,
Toshi loaned us a hacky sack to play with. She even attempted to show us how it is done. But the Akiukers chose to play tag with
it.
Some questions just have no answers I guess.
Like zebras.
Why zebras? Why
do you look as you do? No one has
stripes like that. You don't
blend. In fact, you look fake. Love you zebras. But you're way too fashionable for me.
The Sacramento Zoo isn't huge. It's bigger than Anchorage. But smaller than San Francisco. My guess is that it's gone through some identity issues
lately. And what it's become
through that is great. It's a real
learning zoo now. There are lots
of people in the park ready to provide information. There was someone outside of the reptile area, for example,
walking with a tortoise. When we
approach the animal "running" free, she told us all about him. While he was a young tyke of 30 years
old, his father is the oldest animal in the park.
The veterinarian area has open glass walls and TV projectors
with a microphone system to explain the procedures being done. I watched and listened intently as they
worked with a pair of one-month-old burrowing owls pictured here:
These owls were getting a West Nile vaccination and blood
drawn to sex them. I'm not quite
sure if this little guy is a guy and neither are the workers there. But the blood taken today will help us
all learn more about him/her.
Flamingo.
Flamingo. Flamingo. Flamingo. Pelican. Flamingo. Flamingo. Flamingo. Do you ever have one of those days
where you just feel a little out of place? This guy cracked me up.
You know what else cracked me up? Trapping Alaina in the exit turn-styles.
Paybacks.
Across from the Sacramento Zoo is Fairytale town. Even though admission was only $4
a person, we didn't go in. We were
too big for the entryway so we figured it wasn't really catered to us. We did look into Fairytale Town as we
walked around to the car though.
And lamented at all the things 2.5 ft. off the ground that we COULD have
been climbing.
At this time of the day it was around noon and a scorching
103 degrees. We had been outside,
without air conditioning, for just under five hours. It was time to go inside. Everyone thirsty but we should have all been hungry
too.
We went to a place called No. 1 Buffet. It's a Chinese food place that has a
lot of different options. Everything
from sushi to chocolate fudge to marinated chicken feet was had by our group
there today. Side note: Henry and Justin followed up their
dessert of ice cream with a second helping of sushi.
With full bellies, we went and did some shopping at SF
Market. SF Market has a lot of
interesting items. Like live blue
crabs and frogs to eat.
We did not buy either of these but we did buy a life
catfish, which was then gutted and chopped for soup that evening.
Side noted number two: you see that dollar bill in Alaina's
hand? She and Henrietta both got
one for remembering and reciting "Happy New Year, may I have lucky
money?" to my mom.
After SF Market I took a
nap. It was only for about an hour
but it was just the refresher I needed to fulfill our promise yesterday to go
to Sun Splash.
The sunburn everyone sustained
in Downieville has at this point become itchy peeling as you can see here:
Some are peeling much worse
than the kid in this photo and some are doing a little bit better but every one
of our Akiukers is peeling. We got
to Sunsplash at about 5:30 and there was quite a line to buy tickets and enter
for the Night Slide. All the while
I looked at the waterslides getting more and more excited about which ones I'd
want to ride first. You see, I
haven't been to Sun Splash before.
I've driven by it plenty.
And I have even dropped off kids there before, but this was the first
time I paid my money and went in myself.
The first thing the ladies did
was enter the wave pool. It is
pictured here:
Marilyn and I went pretty far
in before the waves started. As
they continued Marilyn went closer to "shore" and I went even
deeper. As I started to tire, I
move in a bit and met up with Alaina.
We were both in over our heads for a little while before we spotted
Henrietta and Marilyn. All four of
us were together for the end of the waves and decided not to wait for them to
start up again. We instead took a
turn in the lazy river (pictured two pics above).
After a loop in the lazy river
we grabbed inner-tubes and headed for the rides. I asked the attendant which ride he recommends for
first-time riders and he suggested "Twin Twisters". It was a great first ride. Alaina, Henrietta, Marilyn, and I all
finished that ride and got right back in line for the next ride. The second ride was in complete
darkness. And it too was a
blast. But after that second ride,
or fourth ride depending on how one defines a ride, we decided we'd look for
the boys.
So we rode a couple of the kiddie
slides and then asked them if they wanted to ride the big water slides pictured
behind the wave pool up above. They
declined.
So the four of us again rode
great water slides including one that we did in a four-person inner-tube and
one that we did Superman-style in a race (Henrietta was first but I went the
furthest). From there I split off
from the group and went around the lazy river several more times. Everyone else hung out by the water
basketball until I decided I wanted to go on another big slide. The first person I spotted was Alain
who quickly said she would join me on Stealth. We looked for Henrietta (because you can ride Stealth with
one, two, or three people) but couldn't find her.
The line was long and while we
were standing in it we saw two more rides that looked like they had short
lines. Both rides were
tube-less.
Stealth was awesome. Alaina says it was the highlight of the
water park for her. The two of us
together nearly touched the top of the first shot upwards. We know we were higher than most. What a ride.
Incidentally these were
everyone else's favorite part:
Henrietta: Dark Zone
Henry: Thunder Falls
Marilyn: Six Chuter
Christina: The Vortex
Justin: Basketball
Yago: Basketball
Alaina: (when I asked a few days later she said) All of them... equally
From this point I split off
again and rode both of the body-slides while Marilyn convinced the boys to ride
the last two rides she had done.
Everyone then met up in the wave pool until about 10:00. The park closes at 10:30PM and as you
can see, we shut down the place after dark. It was a great night.
No comments:
Post a Comment