Labor Day Weekend 2019

Since Oscar had Labor day off and Tyler didn't start school until September 4th, we decided to take one last summer roadtrip. We considered going up to Canada or going down to Oregon, but when I ran the numbers the least expensive place to go was back to Silverwood. We already had our season passes, meaning our main entertainment was already covered, and we could get fairly inexpensive lodging by staying at an AirBnB in Sandpoint, Idaho. We'd always stayed in or near Couer d'Alene on our previous visits. Staying in Sandpoint would give us a new area to explore. 

Oscar couldn't get off work early enough on Friday for us to make it all the way to Sandpoint, so we drove a little over 3 hours on Friday and stayed at a budget hotel in Ritzville, WA. For the price we paid I was impressed that they had a suitable breakfast and a little swingset that both kids loved. We'd intended to make it to Silverwood right at opening, but we ended up arriving a little bit later than planned since the kids slept in, ate a great breakfast, and had a great time swinging.

The kids were swinging so hard Oscar had to hold the legs down to prevent it from tipping over. 

We knew it would be insanely crowded at Silverwood (and it was), so we spent most of our 80+ degree day hanging out at the waterpark in the wave pool or the lazy river. Oscar finally got to ride the Velocity Peak slides, the fast blue slides you can see in the background inn the picture on the right. They did have lines, but because the slides are fast, the lines moved relatively quickly. I have zero desire to try them since I've done similar slides (wedgie inducing/back burning/not fun at all), so I stayed with the kids.

Oscar and Allison walked out to the themepark and brought a pizza back while Tyler and I went on the yellow and green slides. I got the sweet spot on the yellow slide that kept sending me high up the sides. Tyler was getting bored and restless in line so I resorted to letting him play abcmouse on my phone. The lines were long, but it was worse when we came on a 95 degree Tuesday in July.

Cute kids in the Lazy River and Polliwog Park.

Around 4pm we took a break from Silverwood and drove to Sandpoint to check in at our AirBnB and give the kids a break. It's 30 miles away, so we didn't spend much time there, but having our stuff already unloaded was definitely helpful when we came back around 11pm. Plus it let the kids get a nap. I was surprised Tyler napped when he'd already slept in that morning.

We came back to the themepark just after 7:00pm. The lines were still pretty long, much longer than they'd been in the waterpark. I took Allison on a few kid rides while Oscar and Tyler tried to do the Corkscrew coaster, but they measured Tyler with a measuring bar and said he was just a little too short. The bar's more accurate than a measuring stick since their head has to touch it. Tyler's hair touches it, but not his head. Tyler was pretty upset about it, so we figured we wouldn't waste time waiting in line for any of the other 48 inch rides just for him to be told no. Tyler and Oscar were still able to ride Timber Terror, but the line took most of the rest of their time.

Tyler and Oscar came back and joined us on the Barnstormer around 9:30, giving me just enough time to do a few thrill rides before the park closed at 10pm. They went and got ice cream while I did Aftershock, Panic Plunge, and Tremors. Here's a before and after shot of me on Aftershock. It's intense!

The next day we went to church in the morning then took the kids for a drive over into Montana to hike to Kootenai Falls and the swinging bridge.

Here we are at a lookout from the other side of the bridge

Oscar and the kids walking back across the bridge

And here we are down by the falls. 

On our way back we stopped to let the kids play at Sandpoint City Beach Park on Lake Pend Oreille. Beautiful lake views!

Allison went in the water, found people, and hijacked their toys. Fortunately they were nice enough to share. Tyler built on the sand for a bit then came over to play on the big sea turtle inflatable.

The next morning we checked out, ate breakfast at Cowboy Cafe in Athol, then went to Silverwood again. I took Allison on the Carousel and other kids' rides while Oscar took Tyler on Tremors. They met back up with us in time to ride Bumper Boats, which Allison enjoyed more than she thought she would. She giggled excitedly whenever we'd shoot someone with water, and she didn't mind too much when she'd get splashed in return.

Then we switched and Oscar took Allison on kids' rides while I took Tyler on Timber Terror. He was falling asleep in line and even fell asleep on the coaster after it had slowed down at the end! We have no idea why he was so tired since he'd gone to bed early the night before and had gotten a full night's rest, but he couldn't seem to snap out of the sleepiness all morning.

We all met back together to ride the Crazy Coaster.

We did a few more kids' rides, which Tyler enjoyed, but whenever he wasn't on a ride or whenever it would slow down he'd start dozing off again. The plan had been to just let Allison skip her nap and stay at the park until they closed at 7pm, but with Tyler being so tired we figured we had to drive around and let them nap. We would have just started our drive home, but I'd already booked a hotel in Spokane that night, which required 24 hour cancelation. We ended up taking the kids for a 45 minute drive, but of course, Tyler only slept like 6 minutes. Allison got a small nap, and Tyler appeared to be fully awake in the car, so we drove back and went to the waterpark. Fortunately Tyler was much more alert the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Pollywog Park was way less crowded than it'd been on Saturday, so I went down the yellow, blue, and turquoise slides with Tyler while Oscar kept an eye on Allison. I then took the kids to the lazy river and wave pool while Oscar did the Velocity Peak slides again.

Once Oscar was done we swapped off and Tyler and I did all four of the Rumble Falls slides. The lines for those move fairly quickly since they only have double tubes. You can still go alone on a double tube, but most people go in pairs, which speeds things up significantly. We also did the big yellow slide, but this time I didn't get the sweet spot. You really have to get lucky.

Allison was done swimming before Tyler and I were, so she and Oscar went out and ordered pizza while Tyler and I met up with them once we were changed. Since there was still a little bit of time before the park closed at 7pm, I took the kids on the Tilt a Whirl and the Tiny Toot Coaster then they finished up on the helicopters as the park was closing. We tried to get ice cream in the park since the shops and food stay open 30 minutes longer than the rides, but the lines were enormous. I know they close early on labor day since the local schools start the next day, but there were plenty of people left in the park at 7:00pm. They definitely could have stayed open until at least 8pm. We ended up getting ice cream and dinner at a Fred Meyer in Spokane then checked in at our hotel.

On our drive back the next day we decided to switch things up by stopping at the Wild Horse Renewable Energy Center to get up close and personal with the windmills. Here are the kids next to one of the huge blades.

Huge solar panels and nice views of the endless windmills on the walk around.

 

This is as close to one of the windmills as we could get.

Allison and later Tyler enjoyed watching the grasshoppers. This would have been the place to go for a bug collection. They were everywhere! Catching them would have been tricky, but there were plenty of them around.