Magic Studio AI tried, it really did, but those words on the mantle are indecipherable.The first thing you may notice when entering the Great Wolf Lodge is a massive hearth that goes from the floor to the ceiling four floors above. Abby was so worried about missing the Master Magi induction. We got there early and she sat down and we waited. Everyone walking by was like “WTF is going on here?”The ceremony was a 15 minute comedy show that was cute and funny for kids. These two actors did well acting out their lines and getting the kids into the activity.Yes, I was the only adult in this group. No, I don’t care because it was fun to see Abby so into something. She really enjoyed all of the Magiquest stuff.Five hours of walking, using elevators, climbing stairs, fighting crowds, and fighting monsters and we finished. We had such a great time!The kids had some DiGiorno for dinner tonight. I had BBQ sandwiches and Brandi was feeling too sick to eat.
Some Thoughts
We rested in the room and I was writing and drinking coffee. We waited for the MagiQuest ceremony for Master Magi to begin and we walked over to that. It was fun. It was cute. It marked the end of our Great Wolf stay. Overall, I would say the stay here was fantastic. We all had fun and plenty of excitement.
Before the ceremony I was drinking coffee, writing, and doing a lot of packing. I walked out and grabbed carts to carry our things to the van and I did some sorting and organizing. Brandi finished a bit of it while Abby and I were at the ceremony and we headed out. While waiting on Brandi to go fill our souvenir cups, I spoked with a guy named Mike from Hoboken, NJ. I told him that I think I have met more people from NJ in Pennsylvania than actual Pennsylvanians.
There was a dude in the lodge who was caulking and painting our hallway, and every day I spoke with him. He had to run over 2 miles of caulk and had to paint the walls as well. He seemed to be the only guy doing it. He seemed happy with his job, though and he was doing a pretty good job.
The drive out of Pocono Mountains was pretty as we drove to Harrisburg, PA for our Hershey visit. Lots of vistas to see and pretty trees. We at lunch at Cracker Barrel and I got the campfire shrimp meal. It was delicious, but not very much food.
We made it Harrisburg and to our room at stayAPT Suites. We are here for a week. A WEEK. My poor momma thought I was joking, but she was so disappointed at how long we will be gone for. I am fighting off a cold. The dishwasher here is broken and we managed to get a night off of our overall stay. The laundromat here is EXPENSIVE. Anyhow, Wesley and I watched One Piece and that was that. Not a bad room, but now we have to figure out what to do.
Bing AI spat out some decent images based on my prompt, but it ignored my request to put text over the images that says day 3.We set the kids loose and headed straight to the hot tub. We visited, plotted, and planned the day and some of the rest of the trip. The water really felt nice and made my leg stop hurting some.I take random photos from time to time and I thought this photo would be pretty cool. This hot tub is not full of kids and teenagers, it’s not even full of adults. Some folks brought their kids here for quiet time.Abby grabbed my phone and took this photo of me. I look really relaxed, or stoned, or sick, or something. I am exhausted.It took a great deal of encouragement, but we managed to get Brandi on the Hydro Plunge. I am happy she did it and Wesley was her knight in shining armor. I think Brandi enjoyed it! Yesterday Wesley took Brandi outside and today was my turn. The water felt nice, and the weather was chilly and rainy. It’s like 50 degrees, cloudy and rainy. It was real nice in the water, but not so nice when we got out.Basketball with the family. We play super rough. Dunking, headlocks, tickling, sometimes kicking, biting, slapping. Super intense stuff. Wesley showed me how you have to cross your arms and legs for the drop slide. He was excited that we dis this together.Wesley went first to show me how it works. Very interesting process. You stand on a trap door and they trip it after a countdown. It happens quick, and you drop QUICK. Wesley essentially disappeared once it went off. I could do this 1000 times. It was so fun. We finished Magiquest and the end was really cute. I had such a great time with Abby and this little game. Tomorrow we do the Magiquest ceremony!Well, since we are having fun while waiting…While waiting on the Magiquest store to get closer to closing time, Abby and I just walked and explored some. Had to get this hungry wolf photo of her.I had to get a good photo of this. It feels like a relic, like a bit of history.
Just Some Extra Stuff…
We started a little later today than usual, but we were tired. I drank coffee, wrote on this blog, and eventually the kids and I went swimming. Brandi met us downstairs. We had a good time and we were out of the water by 2 and eating a late pizza lunch by 3. We rested and Abby and I went downstairs and did some Magiquest stuff and we eventually met up with Brandi and Abby and finished out the night.
It was a fun day for sure. Being in the hot tub with Brandi was fun and I goofed off and told Willow (The chat service for Great Wolf Lodge) that “I am not trying to be a Karen, but there are kids in the adults only hot tub!” Nothing came of it, however. It’s probably more of a suggestion than an enforceable rule.
The kids and I managed to finally get Brandi on a water slide. The Hydro Plunge was perfect because it’s not a small tube, it has open air sections, it isn’t too crazy and it’s easy to get in and out of. A real “old lady friendly” slide. I think she really enjoyed it. Wesley managed to get me on the drop slide. I do believe it is the highest platform in the park, which meant way more stairs than I wanted to climb. The drop slide is an exhilarating experience that requires you to essentially fall through a trap door. What a blast.
When we met up with Wes and Brandi, we went bowling and played golf. I broke my wand topped by sitting on it at the bowling alley and Abby left her pink cloak and that disappeared forever. We were bummed out, but through a little bit of friendly effort, I managed to get a replacement cloak and I had time to actually look at toppers for my wand and found one that didn’t break when I SAT ON THE WANDS AGAIN. We did the mirror maze and Wesley and Brandi went up to the room.
Abby and I finished Magiquest. Is the game hokey as hell? Yes, but I loved the game and I loved spending time with Abby. We just have a ceremony to do to finish it all up. That is tomorrow.
Courtesy of Microsoft AI. Almost. Almost!Wes and I did this one together on Day 1 and it was fun. Both kids hopped on today and the weight was off and I almost fell off. Banged my elbow pretty hard, but I am alright. It was quite a bit more exciting with extra weight. Wish I could get Brandi on!This is the absolute best slide in the whole park. It’s a roller coaster/water slide ride. From the website: Find out what it’s like to ride a roller coaster made of water! Hydro Plunge propels your raft, via a motorized track, up a steep climb, only to send you plunging down a thrilling 52-foot vertical drop. Hold on tight as you zip through enclosed tubes and quick-change, twisting curves. It’s a unique roller coaster water slide that’s sure to keep you and your pack howling for more. Designed for the more adventuresome family members, you can tackle this one in tandem tubes or even ride triple for three times the fun. Minimum weight of rider should be 150 lb and maximum combined weight should be less than 600 lbs.We all love this ride. This thing is wild, fast, and wet. Worth the climb.Group selfie in the wave pool. The wave pool is called “Slap Tail Pond” and from the web site: Surf’s up! Catch a wave and splash and play as the swells sweep in from the five-foot deep end to the zero-depth-entry shallows. Wave pools are a fun family vacation favorite for kids of all ages. The rollers flow in every five minutes to lift and transport you on the surge of the ocean’s tide.See the above caption about the group photo.Oh, I got a story for this ride, but from the web site: Get ready for a 40-foot drop into a water-jet-fueled vortex. Four stories in just a few seconds is fun! Once you roar into the whirling basin, you’re in for who-knows-how-many trips around the center before spinning on your way to a perfect splash landing.Wesley’s favorite place seemed to be the wave pool. He spent a lot of time perfecting this trick.The joke would be “Not only do they hang lower, you can put each one in a sock!” The hot tub was really nice. It was also adults only, which is good, but some folks ignored that rule.I found that the easiest way to carry this mat up all of these stairs is to use my big head. Literally.I get a kick out of watching Wesley excitedly run to something he wants to do. He wanted to race me on the race slide and I won the first time, and he won the second timeThe view from the stairs are always cool, but climbing stairs is kicking my fatass all over the place. Wesley may have grown impatient with me because I had to stop for breathers, but he was a good sport. After he saw how I carried my mat, he gave it a shot.This is the cost of winning the water slide race.At the bottom of the post I will tell a bit more about this, but we did manage to get a cabana and wow, how nice it was!Cabanas come with a ceiling fan and they were nice for comfort and for drying out quickly. Nice touch to the overpriced cabanas (That I landed for CHEAP!)Scroll below to read the full scoop on this issue!
Extra Information!
Yesterday (I am writing this on 5/22/2025) was a fucking blast for sure. I got about 5 cups of coffee in me and at around 9am I escorted Abby through some more of our Magiquest journey. Once 10am hit, we hauled tail to the waterpark and the kids and I rode the Hydro Plunge, which is the best slide here. We spent the entire day in the water park and I managed to get one of those $125 cabanas for $50. I love saving money, especially when it’s for top tier, bougee shit.
The cabana experience is quite nice. You get some privacy, a TV, a slightly stocked (with water) mini fridge, comfortable seats and access to a server who is at your beck and call. Oh, you also get a safe to lock your valuables in, which came in handy last night when I decided to stop packing my phone around. The cabana is useful because you have a pronounced “headquarters” that the kids can report to throughout the day. There is also more room to bring more stuff, such as snacks and drinks and the like.
Dude, sliding at a waterpark can be dangerous. I cut my finger, it was superficial, but still annoying. I got a little friction burn on my elbow in the racing slide and I thought I broke my elbow for a second on another water slide. Abby and I rode on the Coyote Cannon slide and when we got into the bowl, my ass was on fire from the friction and WE STOPPED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BOWL. We were shuffling through trying to get to the exit and then to my left I see a dad and his son fly by. I go “OH SHIT ABBY GET THAT GYATT MOVING!” and we did and she was screaming. That was the most fun and funniest moment I have had with her. I hope I never forget that. Yes, I do use slang with my kids, even if it’s wrong/inappropriate/out of context.
Wesley an I did some racing and I won, and he won, When Abby and I raced, I won because I finally understood how to approach the slide. You have to kind of dive into it. If I were in better shape and about 100 lbs less, I would do a running dive into it. Staying on the mat is difficult when you’re hauling as much ass as me.
Lunch in the cabana was free because we have 5 free lunches in our package. It was brought to us by our server. It was tasty but damn I was starving to death afterwards. I snacked on peanuts and drank a gallon of water and just did slides, and we did some swimming in the wave pool. We played an aggressive game of pool basketball and we had a fantastic time at that. I was TIRED after that. I think today I may do the fort with the kids just to see what that’s all about.
While chilling in the cabana Brandi told me that we had a random charge to our room. She interrogated me about it and then she inquired with the Willow Chat feature in the Great Wolf Lodge app. We had a charge for two small cups of Dip N’ Dots. Nope, I didn’t get that. I love those things, but that’s a lot of money for a handful of ice cream. Willow took that info to the food sales manager and they said our son charged it to our room. Our son whose initials are apparently “LG.” Brandi got it fixed, but this place has tried to try some funny shit with us several times. We even had a couple of issues with the one in Grapevine as far as the money stuff goes.
If you visit Great Wolf Lodge watch your expenses, hang on to your money, and stay the hell out of the arcade. Anyhow, here is a bullet list of thoughts from yesterday.
Bougee or not, the cabana is worth it.
Abby is a rollercoaster of emotions. Her biggest issue yesterday was that her goggles broke. You’d think her best friend was moving at the way she carried on,
Wesley turns into a straight up goblin once his social battery is drained.
Brandi is lazy!
I am in a constant state of hanger, exhaustion or pain – or all 3.
I am eating a salad with my unhealthy food. I guess that’s good?
I am way slower than I would like to be.
This is actually really fun so far and I love my “wolf pack.” The NASH PACK!
This Quality Inn motel was restful and the fact that it had breakfast was a big plus. I devoured sausage, eggs, and a few bagels and Wesley had a waffle and a bagel. Abby had some sausage and I am not sure Brandi even ate anything.
After we ate, we headed out. Our next stop is in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, but we do have one more state to visit, even if it is for just a second…
Thank you, Adobe, for your tremendous AI. LOL. It was so bad I had to use this.
State #5: West Virginia
I honestly did not think we were going to hit WV, but there we were. We visited the welcome center in Bunker Hill, stretched our legs and saw a lot of different dogs. I guess this is the place to take dogs because it was so large.
Wesley puts the flag of West Virginia on the F tier. Very critical!
State #6: Pennsylvania
We finally arrived at Pennsylvania’s welcome center in Greencastle. We are extremely close to Maryland, and Wesley actually thought we were going through it. We may have, and we just missed the welcome sign for all I know. We were headed to the Great Wolf Lodge in the Pocono Mountains, and I was tired. My eyes were heavy, and we made a good drive out of it. A few vast, beautiful vistas were driven through (those spots really needed pullovers), and the trees here were pretty. Seeing the sign welcoming us to the Poconos was a relief, and we finally made it. We finally made it.
Abby has low confidence, but one of my favorite things about our relationship is that I believe in her and she trusts me. She wanted to climb the rock and I said she can, and she shrugged her shoulders and climbed it.
We rolled through Pennsylvania and into those Poconos, all the way to the Great Wolf Lodge. We arrived early, unloaded, and went to our rooms. We did some exploring and we did some resting. The kids were excited, but I think everyone was exhausted. Abby and I did some exploring and I got one final pic for the day…
