We continued our Atlanta trip with a plan to hit White Water for another day of fun in the sun and the water, with tickets to the Braves game later that evening. But I had forgotten my prescription eye drops in Birmingham, so after calling a couple of pharmacies, I found one nearby that had one bottle available. So after a great buffet breakfast at the hotel, we drove over to CVS to pick up my eyedrops. These are typically super cheap, as I have a long term prescription, and get them for $10/box. But that does not work when you buy just one bottle, they have to sell it as a short term prescription, and you pay $76 for one bottle. Yikes. Oh well, what are you going to do, I had missed my drops for the previous night, so I put some in for this morning, and off to White Water we went.
We did start to blame things on our 13th floor (officially 14th) hotel room, and seriously the hotel had a giant portion of the side that looked like it was blasted off. So it had a slight Tower of Terror vibe that we attributed all things going wrong to for this trip. Like the pants that Magan was sure she brought on this trip, yet could not find them while in this hotel room...only to finally find them in the suitcase when we got home.
As with most water parks, it is difficult to carry a camera around, so not many pictures from White Water. We had never been here, so we basically just started at one side, and worked out way around. At the first stop where we were loading the clothes for the day into a locker, we realized that the season pass unlimited refill cups from Six Flags also work at this park. So back to the van to get them, which was nice to have. We found out quickly that the lines were going to be really long here at every ride...and I would like to say they were all worth it, but definitely not this first one.
Now the second ride was called the Dragon Tail, and it would change our lives forever...or at least for a few days. We all went to the top of the hill to get in line for this slide. We heard multiple warnings about how fast this ride was, and how to get out of the water at the bottom as soon as possible. We could not wear our shoes on the ride, so me and Sam ended up having to hold everyones shows on the way down. I went down first with Ruby, wanted to make sure at the bottom I could quickly help her if needed. She did great, but it was scary, you definitely come off of the slide at each drop and get a little air. Then Davis and Belle came down, also good, but Davis came out not complaining, but definitely not feeling good in his shoulder. And then we heard the screaming...aaaaahhhhh...AHHHHHHH ....aaaahhhhh......OOOOOOO.....aaahhhh....AAAAAHHHH. Magan was screaming the whole time, which turned into delirious laughter when she hit the pool at the bottom. The whole spectator area was laughing at her screams. Then she started telling us all about her ride, and what happened on the, slide we had all just experienced with her, yet she was doing all this while still standing and laughing and smiling right in the water at the end of the slide. Finally we got her to start moving towards the side, but she never stopped talking and laughing about her slide down as she moved to the side to let the next people come down.
While the Dragon Tail started things, the next set of slides ended the day for Davis. It was one of those typical on your back slides, but not designed well at all, because my feet kept slamming into the wall, and the turns were not fun, but painful. But we were trying them all out, except for Magan, the Dragon Tail had been enough water slide for her for the day. And after this ride, then a short float slide that was not really that fun, but took 30 minutes to ride (because White Water had 5 floats for everyone on this one slide...that is not enough float White Water...efficiency rating of zero at this water park). But Davis came off of this slide with his left arm completely limp, he had pulled something, and was in pain. He was hurting so bad that he had to sit by the wave pool with some advil and ice from the first aid office.
So while Davis sat at the wave pool loving and enjoying the Karaoke singing of random little girls that were trying to sing, we got in line for a family ride, and after 30 minutes left that line because it was not moving, then we found out it had stopped due to lightning in the area. So we all got to sit next to Davis with the wonderful Karaoke that did not have to stop due to the lightning. We were sitting right at one of the entrances to a super long lazy river, so the girls were one of the first in after the lightning was gone.
Our day at White Water ended with a quick walk through the kids spray areas (none as cool as Hurricane Harbor) then one last few slides at the area we began it while we got all of our stuff out of the locker. No Cabana here, but I don't think this is the park for cabanas, it is more like six flags with water rides, and while it was fun, it did not come close, in my humble opinion, to the fun at Hurricane Harbor. Plus it had scared Magan to death (especially after she saw a little boy need the lifeguard shortly after her ride on Dragon Tail), and taken out one of my boys. And one last thing...why are our armpits chaffed from our time at these water parks?
We still had to get home and changed in time to get over to the Braves game, so we decided to stop at Arbys on the way to the hotel. Arby's app is really good, and has really good deals, so I got Sam to get our order together, so it would be ready when we got there. And he did, they had the $3 French Dip and $2 RB sandwiches, so we loaded up and got about $35 of cheap Arby's food. And when we arrived at Arby's, we learned that Sam had not used "My location", and in searching for the Arbys on this road, selected one that was about 15 miles away. No way were we going there, so we made our same $35 order at this Arby's and are hoping someone was able to eat all that food we paid for at the other Arby's. It was slightly Sam's fault for not paying attention, but also mostly the hotel's fault we later would say due to our unlucky floor. After a quick trip to CVS (yes, again), this time for muscle pain lotion and pads for Davis, we finally made it back to the hotel.
Back to the hotel for a quick change of clothes and getting ready to see the Braves take on the Milwaukee Brewers. We all ate the now double priced sandwiches from Arby's, and got ready for the long walk over to the stadium. Ruby surprised us all by eating both a french dip and swiss AND an Arby's sandwich. She much have been hungry after all the water rides. They were all a bit hungry because on most theme park days I tell them you eat a big breakfast, and then you push to skip lunch and eat dinner afterwards. Then we headed towards the stadium, which was a fun adventure in itself, from the lobby, no lie, this is the directions...take the parking garage elevator to the 8th floor, then walk back into the stairway up to the 9th floor, exit and turn left crossing the street to the mall, walk thru the parking lot of the mall to the crosswalk over Cobb Parkway, then follow the signs to the I-285 pedestrian overpass.
As we got to the crosswalk over Cobb Parkway, there was a nasty garbage smell that we all hustled to get past, and then as I was halfway over the crosswalk, I realized we were missing Ruby...and Mom. They had stopped, and she was puking on that crosswalk the extra Arby's sandwich she had eaten. Then when I made it back to her, I quickly pulled her over into the grass (seriously, I don't know why this ends up being me) where she could get her breath and drink some water. Then came the French dip and swiss. Poor girl...she told me later she knew she had eaten too much, but was doing fine until that garbage smell. We only had two waters for the walk over to the stadium, but one of them quickly became property of Ruby only. Luckily, she handled this event in stride, and it held us up only briefly, as on we went.
Inside the stadium, our first stop was to purchase a $5 water for Ruby, as we had to throw the others out on our way in. She was better, but not in a playful mood yet. We made our way up to the cheap Coca-Cola Corner seats (if you can call any seats in this place cheap), where we each got a free Cola with our seat. The line for the Braves store was ridiculous, so we ended up at the small store on Level 3, where Sam and Mom got a hat, and Ruby got her new best friend Blooper. Sometimes I splurge a little, and after the loss of that much Arby's, you need to splurge a little to bring back the smiles. And Blooper did just that. Also after describing the difference in the Atlanta A and the Alabama A to Ruby in the store, a random store worker overheard, and told Ruby that the Alabama A had a mullet. haha, I have heard pony-tail, but never heard it as a mullet.
After getting a slight drizzle, and a little wet, and a short 40 minute rain delay, It was a great game going back and forth, with both teams smashing some home runs. We cheered for the Braves, and Toma-hawk chopped with everyone. And during the 4th inning, I walked down with the girls to meet Blooper himself, who came out to see his newest and biggest fan. While waiting for Blooper, Ruby looked up at me with a big smile and said, "DAD, I think I understand baseball now, it is just like kickball". She said this with excitement, sharing that she was finally understanding this great national pastime.
Back at our level, there was a dash for ice cream with my other sweetest girl Anabelle. Girls...if you guys will just keep joining me at baseball games, I promise ice cream and stuffed animals forever. We went on a run, and ended up with ice cream, cokes, and some weird latin american potato things that we all tried. We all laughed and cheered as the wave was formed and went around the stadium several times. And then it was 1, 2, 3 strikes they were out...and the BRAVES WIN!!!
Because the fireworks are shot from right there near Coca-Cola corner, we moved over a few sections to watch the fireworks that evening. And I have seen fireworks many times in my days, and many shows that set them off in time with music. But on this night, it was like somebody's hillbilly cousin was asked to do the show, and he said "We are about to blow some stuff up". I have NEVER seen nor heard the level of explosive fireworks during a finale like this one. It did not have anything to do with the music played, there was really no show of any kind with the lights...just a crazy number of random explosions.
And thus ended an awesome day. We laughed and smiled on our long walk back to the devil hotel. Magan looked super hot in that new Atlanta hat. Girls...if you guys will just keep joining me at baseball games, I promise ice cream and stuffed animals and ball caps forever. We made it back to the Cobb highway crossover, where all the puke was now gone (don't ask, Ruby almost lost it again at this location). And back into our hotel, where we now found out the TV was no longer working. And get this, the $76 bottle of eyedrops was no where to be found...we looked all over the room and in the van, yet this hotel had taken it. Well, at least I got 2 drops for that price, you win "Sheraton Tower of Terror", we will leave you in the morning.
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