4. Go to a Water Park

I've lived in the desert for around 15 years now, and I lived a mile away from Golfland Sunsplash for around 10. Needless to say, many of my childhood summers were spent running around the water park. Patherica, on the other hand, had never been to a water park--I guess that happens when you live in the suburbs--until today. Tickets happened to be Buy One Get One Free today, so with that, we crossed off #4 on our list.

I like to think Patherica's first water park experience was a success. We went all of the major water slides, even the scary ones. The Sidewinder was probably the most daunting.

So that's not a recent picture of the ride (the picture is from About.com), but the only thing that changed is the inner tube they use. By the way, that's a near-vertical drop from several stories high. When I was younger, you could take up to three people at once (which, in hindsight, was probably really dangerous) and everyone faced the same way in your typical inner tube. At least now, the tubes seemed a little safer as the tubes had back support and placed the riders so that they faced each other. Side note, our friendship reached a whole new level when we had to lay our legs on top of each other.

Patherica was freaking out on the way up--but let's be honest here, I think everyone freaks out before they're about to plummet to their deaths. I was definitely freaking out, too. Still, she faced it like a champ, even volunteering to go backwards because I didn't want to. True friend right there!

Later in the afternoon, we took a break as Tina, who was with us, needed to leave for work. Before that, though, we went to a nearby Waffle House. Tina had never had waffles before, so this was the perfect opportunity to eat some.

Tina left, but Patherica and I still had the rest of our day to hang out at Sunsplash, and Patherica, who is broke at this point, wanted to get her money's worth. So, we head back over to the park. We take it easy this time, going on a couple of rides we knew we liked and hanging out in the lazy river and the wave pool. It ended with me reliving my childhood as we made our way to the kiddie area to the lily pads.

WORK IT, PATHERICA. Funny story, while we were waiting in line for a ride, some boy introduced himself to Patherica. Then we bumped into him in the lazy river, where Patherica conveniently was separated from Tina and I. Then we saw him by the wave pool. He ended up hanging around us for a while, even after we left and came back. Patherica is just such a boy magnet. It's that bikini body. ;)

All in all, today was a great day. I got slightly tanner and a little braver, and I think Patherica had fun. We went to Krispy Kreme afterward but sadly did not get a free donut. Working on it!