Raging Rivers in Grafton, IL

We promised our kids we’d take them to a water park one last time before school starts and wanted to try some place new.  So, we went to Raging Rivers in Grafton,IL.  It was our first time there.  The scenery was beautiful.  It’s built on a hill so you get nice views of the Mississippi river.  The food is also good.  We had some Mexican food.  $5.99 for tacos – be still my heart!

I have to say though, we do know how to make an entrance.  Upon arrival, as we are walking into the water park, a huge bee lands on my daughter’s bathing suit bottoms.  My other daughter comes over laughing telling me there’s a bee on her sister.  I’m like what?!? -you need to get it off her!  I turn around and there’s my daughter petrified and shaking holding her swim suit bottoms out away from her.  That’s when I see the biggest bee I’ve ever seen in my life crawling around on her bathing suit.  It was yellow and black striped with lots of fur.  My eyes turn into giant saucers.

I screamed a bunch of stuff like holy crap that’s the biggest bee I’ve ever seen in my life and some other things that did not make my daughter feel any better but luckily I didn’t curse.  When parenting intersects with a parent’s fear = bad parenting moments.  So, I pick up our beach bag full of stuff and swing it at her bottoms like I’m Wonder Woman and the beach bag is my sword.  Because there was no way I was touching that monster bee and there was no way I was going to let it stay on her.  The bag knocks the bee off of her but flies out of my hand and hits a lady walking by.

I profusely apologize to the lady for throwing my bag at her.  She had no idea why I was even throwing a bag in the first place so I guess I just looked like a crazy woman.  She’s like I’m fine – is your daughter ok?  Oh ya, my daughter.  So, then I try to comfort my daughter.  She’s relieved she didn’t get stung by the bee but kind of shaken because she saw Mommy lose her mind.  :-p  My other daughter gives me a high-five and is hysterically laughing (at me).

Later, I come to the revelation that my daughter’s swimsuit has flowers all over it.  The bee just thought that it was pollinating a flower.  Poor bee.  I’m sure it’s still out there somewhere just a little more misshapen and possibly more scary looking.  Remind me never to wear anything with flowers on it outside.  That’s how we roll y’all-just another day in the life with kids, knocking out our fears one by one.

The highlight ride of the day was the one my kids call the toilet.  It looks like an intestinal tube which has a giant toilet bowl contraption at the bottom in which the kids get swirled around like they are being flushed down the toilet and then they get spit out into a deep pool of water.  Not everyday the kids get to experience what it would be flushed down the toilet.  They loved this ride.  Let’s hope this experience encourages them to start flushing the toilet more often!

After we left the water park, we went to main street in Grafton for some ice cream.  They had several ice cream shops to choose from.  We checked out all of them and ended up at the last one we visited – Grafton Fudge and Ice Cream.  It was really good.  I had black cherry, the girls had birthday cake and cookies and cream, and my husband got the chocolate shake – all very good.

Anyway, I highly recommend this place to families.  Most of the rides are for all ages, except the toilet bowl one.   There’s a wave pool, lazy river, several slides, and nice scenery for the adults so you feel like you are on vacation-that’s my favorite!  The food is reasonably priced as well-winning! 🙂  But now I want to go back because after we left we saw several neat looking restaurants overlooking the river – looks like a great place for a date night.  We got to take the ferry home – another new experience.  Here’s the river view while eating: