Recently my wife Nancy and I had to watch two of our grandsons, Chris and Zach, for a weekend.
It is ALWAYS difficult to come up with something to do that (A) won't turn our home into Fred Sanford's; (B) won't affect our (ha ha) retirement money; and (C) won't kill us.
On a whim we thought about taking them to Zoom Flume, the water park in the Catskills.
This is not a professional endorsement, I just wanna say how much fun it was.
And boy WAS it ever!
We've never been there before, so it was a new experience for us as well.
The sun was shining, no clouds in the sky, and very hot, perfect for a day around water rides.
Let me preface with the fact that my days on rides at theme parks are well behind me, if they were ever there to begin with. I can do Hoffman's Playland, since it's (overall) somewhat tame rides (say, when compared to The Great Escape or any other theme park with "monster" rides). Even if the merry go round is spinning too fast I get a funny feeling in my stomach.
So, when we go to Zoom Flume, even though we were all wearing bathing suits, I was hoping to have limited time on rides; a little swimming, watch the kids, and just have fun, stuff like that.
My grandsons had other ideas.
"Popsie go on this ride with me."
"Popsie go down the tube with me."
"Popsie ride the raft with me."
"Popsie go down the slide with me."
"Popsie why does your face look so funny?"
Well we didn't go on ALL of the rides, but darn near all of them.
By the time we got to our hotal room that night (and for 3-4 days afterward), I looked and felt like one of the zombies from "The Walking Dead".
What was I thinking?
How did I think at 56 (and closer to 57), I can run around a place like this like I was still 21?
Simple.
Because my grandsons wanted me to, and they had fun with me doing it.
That's why yesterday afternoon, I stood in our backyard while the boys decided they wanted to soak me with the hose and buckets of water.
I'm such a sucker, and wouldn't have it any other way.
Mike Patrick
