GREAT WOLF LODGE

Last year on a whim I entered an on-line sweepstakes for a family package for Mason County, OH (right outside Cincinnati, OH). I ended up winning one of the 30 packages that included a three day, two night stay at the Great Wolf Lodge, a $100 gas card and four two-day passes to Kings Island Amusement Park. We decided we didn't want to use everything on one trip. Great Wolf Lodge has an indoor water park, so we wanted to take full advantage of that and then use the Kings Island passes another time. We finally made time to go this past weekend since the kids were off school on Monday for President's Day. The original plan was to drive to OH on Sunday morning but due to the forecast for that day for bad weather moving into TN and KY, we left Saturday afternoon and got a room at a Comfort Suites at the same exit at Great Wolf. This actually worked out better because we had a full day on Sunday to enjoy Great Wolf. We arrived at the lodge about 9:15 and they allowed us to register and use the facilities before checking into our room. Great Wolf Lodges are known for their indoor water park. It was a lot of fun! They have about four water slides - one which is automated and like a roller coaster - a lazy river, a wave pool, a regular pool, a kiddie pool and 2 kiddie slides, and 2 hot tubs.

On Monday morning we woke up to winter storm warnings and snow! And snow it did - it was snowing when we woke up (Seth even ate breakfast out on the balcony in the snow!) and it snowed all day without stopping. (It was still snowing Tuesday morning.) There was about 8" of new snow when we left on Tuesday. It was a lot of fun being inside an 84 degree room riding water slides and watching all the snow outside. We had to check out on Tuesday morning, but Jenna and Steve went to the water park for an hour while Seth and I hung out reading in the lobby. We had lunch at Skyline Chili before leaving Cincinnati. I was concerned about travel conditions, but OH and KY had the interstates clear and we had no problems getting back to TN.

We had a lot of fun at Great Wolf Lodge. Now we just need to make time to go back to Cincinnati to use our passes for Kings Island.

We got a kick out of the picture on the left. The door said the outdoor pool was open "weather permitting". The outside sign says "Danger..Pool Closed". With 8" of new snow outside these signs made me laugh.