Summer means swimming. It is filled with days of going to the local pools and occasionally travelling to a water park - or in the case of this summer, three water parks in the Midwest. In the last fifteen days, I have been to three water parks with my children and husband.
For my daughter's 9th birthday, she wanted nothing more than to go to The Lost Island in Waterloo, Iowa. She'd been with her daycare previously, but we'd never been as a family. The highlight of the kids' day at The Lost Island was going on the water coaster and being airborne for a few seconds. Easton said, "We were literally in midair!"
The following weekend, we traveled to Missouri for a family reunion near Branson. We decided to make use of our season passes to Silver Dollar City and White Water while we were there. White Water has the lazy river and the wave pool (where I like to hang out) and they have some water slides and racing slides, but no water coaster. With the two hours we had to spend there, we enjoyed ourselves, but none of us were extremely sad that we didn't spend the whole day there.
Finally, we ended our water park adventures at Oceans of Fun last Wednesday. I have to say that of the three parks, Oceans of Fun was my favorite. It had the most to do, and for one admission, you have access to both Oceans of Fun and Worlds of Fun for the day.
What made Oceans of Fun special was the fact that it had so much to do. It had the lazy river and the wave pool, but it also had four areas for children under ten, plus paddle boats and kayaks. It also had an adults only section, which would have been nicer if we didn't have children (or if our children were old enough to do some things on their own).
From about 2-6 PM we played at Oceans of Fun. In that time, we visited the wave pool, the Coconut Cove, rode boats, and went down some water slides. When our niece and nephew joined us, I was happy staying back and playing with them in the Crocodile Isle while my brother-in-law went on the water slides with my children. This was a water park that we could easily have spent more time at and still not been able to go on all the adventures the park had to offer, plus we had the added benefit of visiting Worlds of Fun in the morning.
While all three water parks had slides, rivers, and wave pools, the one with the most to do was definitely Oceans of Fun. So if you're looking for a water park in the Midwest, I recommend heading to Kansas City, Missouri and visiting Oceans of Fun.
Comments