Monday, February 7, 2011

Day 2 - Part V Let the Fun begin.

Closing in on the Ice... yet distracted on the way.

Suddenly we saw a giant lady bug.


  
As we got closer we saw it had a door for a mouth, it was a building of some sort.  And as the signs had been promising the "Amusement Area" we figured this made sense.  Then the green sign with an arrow, that said "Toilet."  


Yes, the enormous ladybugs are the public bathrooms (strictly BYO-TP affairs - and only the Handicap stall contains a "throne."  All the rest require one to recall skills of the backpacker.  Even, my son informs me, on the boys side.)


And there are other ways the park is kept clean.  The translation - SO close.  And yet...


Next we began to spot the feral cats.  OK, semi-feral cats.

  
The park appears to leave food out for them.  Ya' know how all zoos seem to have squirrels.  This park has cats in the same way.  Except they aren't always perching on garbage cans.  But they were doing all the rest of the stuff; darting in and out of bushes, lurking on the edges of paths peering at you, scrambling up buildings.  And cats, unlike squirrels, bask in the sun.   


Many of the usual suspects for a "Fun Fair" for the kiddies were there, the silly little trains, like this one with the "Monkey King" theme.  


There were roller coasters of increasing thrill, and those semi-parabolic boat-rides, 

or as I like to call them, barf-o-matics.  

There was even a vaguely disturbing pirate-themed "go-round" of sorts,


where you sit in tea-cup shaped things, and shoot water cannons at manically happy, candy colored, cartoon proportioned animals in pirate get-ups.  OK, swords and spears I'm down with, the pirate theme and all.  I'm even willing to give into nun-chuks, they're Chinese cartoon pirates after all.  But the cheerfully grinning, purple elephant holding a thoroughly modern pistol, 


aiming it at the kids who need to be "Under 1.2m" 


was rather bizzarro, in a sinister way, to me.  

In the middle of it all was an enormous round building covered with brightly colored hexagons.  


Not until we made it around to the front could we at last figure out what it was.  It was a baby play space.  With a clear purpose.


Super-socialized Super-babies!

There was a lego store 

so your kids can whine at you, and plenty of space to fly kites.  But at last we made it to the prize, almost. 

A frozen swimming pool did tell us we were on the right track.  But this was just a place to rent little wooden boats and push yourself about on the frozen surface.  And a little midway - again, so the kiddies can whine while you say, "no."







 Tomorrow.... At last, the ice we have been searching for!

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