August 2006
Don’t Just Jump in a Lake!
Water Play Options in the Puget Sound Area
While the Pacific Northwest is well known for its large, picturesque bodies of water, the water isn’t so famous for its hospitable temperatures. Consequently, we often have to look to points inland to splash around and cool off without a wetsuit.
Fortunately, the waterpark was invented, where excited screams are the soundtrack to fun and the smell of sunscreen wafts on every breeze. The South Sound area is blessed with a number of spots with water slides, lazy rivers and spray parks.
Wild Waves, at 36201 Enchanted Parkway, just off Interstate 5 in Federal Way, has more than a dozen slides, as well as a wave pool and a multi-story water playground. The attractions have different height and swimming skill requirements, depending on slide height and pool depth, which are clearly posted at each slide’s entrance. Many allow kids of all ages, so long as an adult accompanies them.
Smaller kids and more tentative swimmers would do best to stick to the gentler attractions, such as the lazy Konga River Ride and Hooks Lagoon, a big, multi-story water playground. With its towers and connecting bridges, Hooks Lagoon looks like something out of Swiss Family Robinson, if the Robinsons had squirt guns and excellent water pressure. Raging River, which is far less turbulent than its name suggests, is another more placid option. Swimmers drift on tubes with the current and down mild slopes. Up to three tubes can connect, letting families stay together.
Speed demons and more confident swimmers have plenty to choose from. The Zooma Falls Raft Ride, which opened last summer, drops passengers almost 50 vertical feet in 30 seconds. This yellow and orange slide doesn’t have the steepest slopes and the rafts seat up to four people. Braver kids can go it alone on the Konga Slides, which are a bit steeper and also use tubes, or the Green Waterslides, which are a quartet of looping chutes that weave in and out of each other in spirals. Faster and steeper still are the “giant waterslides,” a group that includes the Banzai, the Bobsled, the Python and the Rampage. Fastest of all are the Black and White Speed Slides, which require a long slow-down area at the bottom.
Six Flags operates Wild Waves and the adjoining Enchanted Village, and both are included in the cost of admission. Tickets are $34.99 for general admission, $28.99 online and free for children 2 and younger. Parking costs extra. For more information, call 253-925-8000 or visit www.wildwaves.com.
The South Sound boasts many other ways to beat the heat without floating idly in a pool.
Stewart Heights Pool, 402 E. 56th St. in Tacoma, has slides and attractions many waterparks would envy, including a 160-foot water slide, a lazy river and various water play areas, including a place to play water basketball. Some attractions have height requirements. Call 253-573-2532 for hours and fees.
Rotary Spray Park, installed last year in Les Gove Park, 11th Street S.E. and Auburn Way S. in Auburn, features primary-colored pipes, water cannons and jets, and lots and lots of buttons to push to activate even more fountains and sprays. A Foam Gun shoots an arc of foaming water across the playground.
You may travel up to Seattle Center for science or culture or a fair, but it’s a smart idea to bring swimsuits too. The area has four fountains designed to host swarms of excited summering kids. International Fountain in the center of the grounds choreographs blasts of water to music. Du Pen Fountain, situated just north of Key Arena by Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, is quieter and often in the shade. It has a couple of smaller fountains in a shallow pool, and sometimes attracts ducks. Neototem’s Children’s Garden is between Pacific Science Center and Seattle Children’s Theatre. It features a sculpture of a whale’s tail that drizzles water from its flukes. And just outside the Center, in Fisher Plaza at Denny Way and 5th Avenue N., is a bull’s-eye-shaped fountain with rings of water blasts that go off at random.
Most open-air fountains, spray parks and wading pools are open approximately until dark through the end of summer and are free. For a listing of all pools and wading pools in your area, call or visit the Web site of your city or county parks department, YMCA or school district. Also, check the Puget Sound Parent monthly calendar for special kids’ nights and events at local pools.
Here are some more options for water fun this summer.
Kitsap County
Bainbridge Island Aquatics Center, 8521 Madison Ave. N.E., Bainbridge Island, 206-842-2302. Adult admission $4.25, kids $3.25, discount punch cards available. Facilities include a lap pool, tot pool, lazy river and water slide
Glen Jarstad Aquatic Center, 50 Magnuson Way, Bremerton, 360-473-5376. $3 adults, $2.50 kids. The six-lane pool has a shallow end that includes a basketball hoop, plus a diving board and a small slide.
North Kitsap Community Pool, 1881 N.E. Hostmark St., Poulsbo, 360-598-1070. $3 adults, $2.25 kids. The pool hosts lap swims, preschool playtimes and other classes and programs.
Olympic Swim Center, at Olympic High School, 7070 Stampede Blvd., Bremerton, 360-662-2886. Family swim admission is $5. The pool is open to the public and features family swim, recreational and lap swimming and lessons.
South Kitsap Community Swimming Pool, 425 Mitchell Ave., Port Orchard, 360-874-5741. $3 per person, $7 per family. The pool offers lap swims, family swims and lessons.
Tacoma
Centre at Norpoint Pool, 4818 Nassau Ave.
E., Tacoma, 253-591-5504. Daily passes are $9 for adults, $5 for ages
9-17, and $2 for ages 8 and under. Family passes are $16. The indoor facility
has a lap pool, a family pool spa, a beach walk-in and a mushroom waterfall.
Eastside Pool, 3424 E. L St., Tacoma, 253-591-2042. Adults
$3, kids $2. The indoor pool has shallow and deep ends and a diving board;
lessons are offered.
People’s Pool, 1602 Martin Luther
King Jr. Way, Tacoma, 253-591-5323. Adults $3, kids $2. This indoor pool
has depths ranging from three to 11 feet, with a diving board.
Titlow Pool, 8355 6th Ave., Tacoma, 253-564-4044. Adult
full/half session $6/$4, kids $5/$3. This is an Olympic-sized, outdoor
pool with depths between three and 10 feet.
Olympia
Heritage Park Fountain, 330 5th Ave. S.W., Olympia, 360-753-8380. This popular fountain across from a marina shoots jets of water from the ground.
Renton
Henry Moses Aquatic Center, 1719 Maple
Valley Hwy., Renton, 425-430-6780. Facilities include two water slides,
a wave machine and a lazy river.
South and Central Seattle
Colman Pool at Lincoln Park, 8603 Fauntleroy Way S.W., 206-684-7494. $3.50 adults, $2.50 17 and under, $1 slide fee. This heated, outdoor saltwater pool has a water slide.
Judkins Park, 2150 S. Norman St. The spray area includes a tower that shoots water.
Mounger Pool, 2535 32nd Ave. W., 206-684-4708. $3.50 adults, $2.50 17 and under, $1 slide fee. The pool has a 50-foot corkscrew slide.
Pratt Park, 1800 S. Main St. This wading pool includes water sprays and animal-shaped squirters.
Westlake Plaza, 4th Avenue and Pine Street downtown. The waterfall fountain has a walkway passing between sheets of water.
Farther Afield
Birch Bay Waterslides, 4874 Birch Bay Lynden Road, Blaine, Wash. This park is about two hours north of Seattle, almost at the Canadian border. Birch Bay has four large slides, several smaller, tamer slides, and lots of space for sunbathing. $9-$14; children 2 and younger free. 360-371-7500. www.birchbaywaterslides.net.
Slide Waters – Lake Chelan Waterpark, 102 Waterslide Drive, Chelan, Wash. Chelan is about four hours east of Seattle. The park has 10 waterslides, a spa, a children’s area and other outdoor activities, including volleyball. $13-$16. 509-682-5751. www.slidewaters.com.
Breanne Boland is a Seattle freelance writer.
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