Last Saturday we got to go with Kelly, Paul, and WCN to the University of Alabama’s outdoor pool. I was picturing an athletic-style pool, but this was not the case at all. The outdoor pool is family-centered, with a kiddie pool (maximum depth of 2 feet), and a large pool that had a max depth of about 4 feet. The large pool also had a lazy-river section, where you could float with the artificial current. Most importantly, the large pool had a three-story water slide.

I played with WCN in the kiddie pool for a little while, until she started to fuss about going in the big pool. I left her in Mom’s expert care, and ran off to lazy river with Meredith, which was fun – we floated along together for most of the trip, separating when we threatened to run over a group of kids. Once along the lazy river was enough when compared to the siren call of the water slide, so off we went to the slide.

The slide turned out to be tremendous fun. It was certainly as big as any slide I had been on in my youth in Maine (think Bear Pond for fellow Mainers). I suspect that I had not been on a water slide in 20 years or more. Fun! This one was not super fast, but had plenty of corners which felt fast. I concentrated on speed by trying to keep my head back and keep my weight even across my body, and that worked well. I got quite a bit of height on many of the corners. I thought it was great. So, I rode it again. And again. And again. I conservatively estimate that I rode the slide about 30 times. I suspect the lifeguards on slide duty thought I was nuts.

After the swim, we mellowed much of the afternoon away watching the Olympics in Kelly and Paul’s beautiful loft. They even had digital cable! Certainly a better picture than the old rabbit ears give us here.

WCN’s baby sitter came over about 6:00, and the adults (and me) headed off to the newly opened Longhorn restaurant in town. Being new, it was mobbed, and the wait was over an hour. We were able to spend the time quite pleasantly in the nearby Barnes and Noble bookstore, where I came away with three books and a very nice triple-chunk cookie.

The Longhorn food was very good, but the service was spotty at best. I suspect they were still working out the kinks in the kitchen and in table management. The salads and soups came at the same time as the meal (which was slow in coming), Meredith did not get the dressing she wanted, I did not get all my food without asking two separate times, Paul had to wait about 25 minutes for a basic margarita, and our waitress, while nice, was not always attentive to us. I suspect that they will get their act together, but my recommendation is to stay away from restaurants for the first month or two until they get things figured out. Having said all this, the food was excellent, and the company was great, so it was still a fun evening.

We went with Kelly and WCN to Kelly’s church the next day (Paul was not feeling well, so he stayed home), where we heard a very good homily on God being into the spectacular, even in ordinary lives. The only bad part of church was they ran out of post-church donuts before WCN got hers, but that was rectified by a quick grocery stop on the way home.

Meredith and I had to head out after church – we wanted to do the 7-hour drive to our friend’s house while it was daylight. We left about 1:00 or so, and had no trouble in getting to Louisville. Beverly welcomed us warmly, and we laughed while Beverly told stories on how she met her late husband; she is quite the storyteller. It was a work (school) day for Beverly on Monday, so we turned in around 11:00.

I had planned on taking Meredith to Kings Island amusement park, which is outside Cincinnati, but that plan fell though when I did not sleep well (on the order of two hours’ sleep). We’ll have to catch it next summer. The early start did get us home early (around 1:00), where I was able to grab a two-hour nap.

It was a short trip, but it was great to see Kelly, Paul, and the WCN. It is nice to be able to picture their house, and to know where Paul works. I’ll have to see what else I can buy for WCN at CVCA’s next auction to give me a good excuse to go again.