Druskininkai

What a trip!  On the 27th we headed to Druskininkai for a little family vacation.  The drive down was pretty uneventful.  Oh, except we ate lunch at a gas station.  We just carted in our peanut butter sandwiches and apples, plunked ourselves down at the little table and chairs, and went at it.  A perfectly fine spot for some lunch.  While at the gas station we also bought some windshield washer fluid and filled up the tank.  But the sprayers still didn't work.  So I just sloshed some right onto the windshield before we got back in the car.  Whatever works.

The guest apartment we stayed in was great.  I'll show you.

I guess I didn't really get any great shots of the apartment.  But the kids look happy there, right?  So it must have been fine.

On the 28th we went to the water park, thinking we would get an all-day pass.  But it turned out you don't have in-and-out privileges with the day pass, and we knew we'd have to leave in the middle to give the kids a nap.  So we just bought a two-hour pass for the morning, and planned to buy another in the afternoon.  It was a more expensive way to do it, so we were a little disappointed, but oh well.

Cameras weren't allowed in the water park, so you'll just have to be satisfied with the images on their website.  But trust me, it was a lot of fun!  We didn't know if Bethany would be able to handle the kids' water slide, but she braved it like a pro.  And the water slides for adults were great!  Except the one where you come out into a funnel and swirl around a bit before dropping through the hole in the centre.  On that one I got water up my nose.

In the kids' area there was a little wading pool with fountains and waves that come on sometimes.  There was also an area with sand to play in.  (Bethany's least favourite part was the sprayers that get you on the way out - presumably to rinse the sand off.)

Afterward Bethany and I waited outside the changerooms for the guys.

And then we waited in the lobby for... I forget what.

They were having fun, I promise!


By this point we'd decided that going back again in the afternoon would be too tiring (for everyone).  So we ended up being really glad that we couldn't leave and come back with the day pass, because then we would have gotten it and we would have felt like we needed to go back in the afternoon.  It worked out better than we'd planned.  (Sometimes things that initially seem disappointing have a way of doing that...)

That evening we just hung around our apartment and then went out for dinner.  The 29th was much the same.  We packed up and checked out of our hotel/apartment, and then went to the water park for the morning.  Afterward the kids and I waited in the lobby while Phil went out to the car to get our packed lunches.  I nursed Andrew and:

He conked out in two minutes flat.  He had a five minute nap stretched out across my lap like this until Phil got back with the food.  All that swimming tires a guy out!

Bethany checked out the penny press machine.

And then we ate lunch, and drove home.  We both said it seemed like just the right amount of vacation for our family.  It took enough "oomph" and adventurous-ness that it felt like it really was a special trip, (and it definitely stretched the kids as far as tiredness and activity level), but it wasn't such a huge trip that it was exhausting.

And now, back to normal.  Except that tomorrow's New Year's Eve.  So I should probably make some kind of special snacks...  These mocha brownies, maybe?  Mmm!