November 2010 - Great Wolf Lodge, WA

We decided to take a local family vacation to Great Wolf Lodge after thanksgiving. It was a ton of fun, and not hideously expensive.

One of the fun things to do there is play a game called MagiQuest, where you buy a special wand and run around the hotel finding special things in a certain order and waving your wand at them to activate them and complete quests and other tasks. Basically it's a very dressed up infrared remote with a motion sensing activation, so when you wave the wand at things, it flashes a code for your wand at the item and a sensor on the item registers it, records the info in a central database, and you get to complete your various quests. It works well and it's a lot of fun for the kids. Caitlin and Dad had fun running up and down the stairs, finding hidden items, and completing the quests. Caitlin completed basically all of the items possible during our stay.

Here's the real reason you go to Great Wolf Lodge - the indoor water park. It was a bit of getting used to when it's 35 degrees and windy outside to be running around in your bathing suit in 84 degree weather in the water park, but it was a ton of fun. Caitlin made some friends and we met some folks we knew from Redmond there as well. The wave pool was fun, and Caitlin had a blast on the various slides.