Wednesday, October 15, 2008 – Day 6 – Washington DC and Williamsburg
Pictures to be added later....
Luggage pull was at 7:30 this morning. It was a good thing that ABD gave us duffle bags because it came in handy today as our “swim bag”. We packed our suits, swimming accessories, water shoes, and Magiquest wands in it storing it in the overhead bin on the bus. We had breakfast one last time in the Café Promenade then returned to the room to hang out until it was time to board the bus. At just before 8:45 we headed downstairs and onto the bus. Our first stop this morning was the White House for a group photo and family photos. The small park near the White House was overrun with squirrels of all different sizes and colors. After taking pictures, we re-boarded the bus saying goodbye to some of our fellow Adventurers who were skipping the zoo this morning and going, instead, back to the Smithsonian area.
The National Zoo was very close to the Mayflower hotel – just up the street on Connecticut Avenue. We were let off and had a couple of hours before having to be back on the motor coach at 11:45. We also had to squeeze in lunch during this time. Maria and Milca recommended the pandas as well as the elephant bath at 10:30. We viewed the pandas both outside and inside then made our way over to the elephant house. We were a little confused at first as to where the elephants would get their baths but a staff member redirected us back into the elephant house where we just caught the beginning of the bathing event.
The elephant was hosed down by the staff worker and stood patiently as the staff member scrubbed the elephant with a giant brush with soap. The elephant handler then had the elephant lay down on different sides so that its legs, back, and rear end could be scrubbed. When the scrubbing was done, the elephant stood back up again to be rinsed off. All the while, the handler was giving the elephant treats to eat. The elephant was very entertaining.
We visited the ape house and reptile house then it was time to start heading back to the bus area. On the way, we stopped off like everyone else near the panda museum store to buy lunch before getting back on the motor coach – an assortment of hamburgers, hot dogs, boca burger, and chicken sandwiches with French fries. We got back on the motor coach and headed towards the Smithsonian’s Air and Space museum to pick up the other Adventurers singing along with Elvis as we headed over. Gary, our bus driver, had been married by Elvis in Vegas and we all passed around his wedding photos.
Just after we started on our way and the rest of the movie, National Treasure, started to play, Milca came back to adjust the video screen above our heads which wasn’t working but the unit popped off its bracket with Milca catching it just in time. Gary pulled the bus over for a while as Seth tried to fix the broken monitor’s brackets. In the end, it was easier to unscrew the wires and completely remove the monitor but then none of the other monitors worked either. So, we listened to Elvis again down to Williamsburg with one brief stop at a rest station for a biological break.
We arrived in Williamsburg at the Great Wolf Lodge at around 3:30 pm. We were already pre-checked in and after grabbing some lemonade and cookies from the nice GWL reception for us and a brief tour/orientation, we were on our way to our rooms. This Great Wolf Lodge was quite a bit different than the one in Grapevine which seemed larger. There were only 4 floors compared to the 10 or 11 floors at the Grapevine Lodge. The rooms were very roomy compared to our 2 previous hotels with 2 queen sized beds instead of doubles but I had to agree with Seth that the mattresses were not as comfortable as our previous hotels. There was free wi-fi internet and I spent the next couple days uploading all 500+ pictures that I had taken onto my Smugmug account.
We got our swim suits on and went down to the water park which was very similar to the one in Grapevine except that there were a couple fewer slides. This Lodge also had a Flow Rider and I was surprised that Rhys tried this ride a couple of times. The water park felt nearly deserted I assume because it was a little “off season” and it was the middle of the week.
Instead of another movie night, Maria and Milca brought pizza, drinks, and Krispy Kreme donuts to the water park. I suspect that was one of the reasons they had movie night in Washington DC instead of this evening. The turnout would have been very small compared to the water park and Magiquest. After dinner, the kids and a few adults rode the Howling Tornado together. At about 6 pm, the kids left the water park and went on the hotel’s Halloween scavenger hunt which, oddly enough, was all Disney characters (Maleficent, Jafar, Shrek, Cruella, et al.) stationed in different areas of the hotel giving out treats. The kids completed the scavenger hunt in no time.
Next, it was time for Magiquest. We went back to the room to change and get our wands. The Magiquest shop was located on the 2nd floor above the check-in counter. The cost was the same: $9.99 for a game and $14.99 for a wand with additional charges for other accessories. Since we had brought our own wands, we just had them activated and we were off playing after receiving our guide books. This Magiquest was somewhat different than the one in Grapevine with most of the Magiquest items being located on floors 3 and 4 flanking each side of the central elevator with stairs on either end. This made for a much quicker game. The quest trees were located centrally on the 3rd floor. The kids and I did a couple of rune quests together and then split off to do our own quests. Within a couple of hours, I had the quests completed and had started the Pixie Adventure compared to the Grapevine Magiquest which took probably twice that long to get to an Adventure. By about 9 pm, we called it a night with Amina questioning why we couldn’t play until 11 pm as we had in Grapevine. “Because I said so” came to mind but we did actually have to be ready for an 8:15 am departure in the morning.
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