Saturday at the Enchanted Castle

I had an extrememly hard time deciding what to do with Kathryn last Saturday. It was another ultra-hot day, so I didn't want to spend too much time outdoors. I thought about taking her to the pool, but I knew we wouldn't be able to spend enough time there to fill the entire day.

But then I remembered that the Carlisle's sent us a list of places around the area where they often take their kids. Unfortunately, that was one of the few e-mails they sent to my work e-mail address. I.S. has been regularly purging that stuff, so that e-mail is now beyond recall.

However, while hunting in vain for that e-mail, I came across another of their suggestions: the Enchanted Castle in Lombard (basically a glorified Chuck E Cheese). So that's where we went.

I told Kathryn that I was taking her to "a surprise" for lunch, and then going to Joliet for dinner. She tried to trick me into giving away the "surprise". First she asked if we were going to Joliet for lunch too. Then she asked if she'd ever been there before. Finally she said, "Daddy, what if I don't like what they have to eat? You should tell me where we're going so I'll know if I'll like their food." I assured her that she'd like it and just kept driving. Finally she tried the "sad eyes" treatment on me: "Daddy, I'm scared because I don't know where we're going. You should tell me so I won't be scared."

Of course, once we arrived, she was amazed! We were able to make our favorite kind of pizza there (pepperoni, black olives, and sweet BBQ sauce). Much better than the stuff Chuck E Cheese tries to pass off as pizza. Then we hit the miniature golf. She's getting much better with the putter; she doesn't just push the ball around anymore, and she's starting to figure out how to line it up for a "good" shot. The mini golf had a "haunted house" theme, so they had a bunch of "black light" all over the place. She'd never seen a "black light" before, so she was preoccupied with her glowing socks and shoes.

Then she went to the kids climbing area, and spent a good hour bouncing around and playing "Super Heroes" with the other kids. After that, she beat me at air hockey for a while (but they were close games). :-)

The last thing we did before we left was the go-cart. I'd never driven one of those things before, but we had a great time. Kathryn claims that she doesn't like "fast rides", but she always loves the faster stuff at amusement parks. So we both had a fantastic time!

When we left, Kathryn made me promise to bring her back some day. It's quite a drive to get down there, but we'll definitely add it to our list of "Cool Places to take Kathryn".