Last year hubby and I visited the aviation hall of the Evergreen Aviation and Space Musuem in McMinnville. Nehalem Bay is only a 30 minute flight from McMinnville. This year hubby and I along with Kim, Joanna and Miss M had planned to spend the morning at the museum and the afternoon at the newly opened Evergreen Wings and Waves Waterpark. But once we arrived, we were surprised that they didn't offer a combo pass. The museum was $27.00 pp and the waterpark was $30.00 pp. For anyone who can't add up that's $57.00 each. That's a little much. We tossed a coin and decided as it was hot and sunny we needed to cool off. So waterpark it was.
What's so special about the waterpark that we flew all the way to Oregon? We could have gone somewhere closer to Vancouver. Are you kidding me? Look at what's on the roof of the waterpark.
It's a Boeing 747. There was no question we were going here. I'm not sure who was more excited. Hubby and Kim, the pilots? Or Miss M who is 7. The pilots are both in their 30's by the way. The 4 big slides start out in the fuselage of the 747. The guys were all over the stats... how to get a plane on top of a building and so on.
Joanna and I were all about the people watching. There were an awful lot of ill fitting swimsuits. When you're my size you should not be wearing an itsy bitsy polka dot bikini! At least it made us feel good about ourselves. All our girly bits were appropriately covered, with no muffin top hanging over. It was not a pretty sight.
Anyways, first up we paid our entry fee and our locker rental fee. See the blue band on hubby's wrist? That's our locker key, you just wave the band in front of the black thingy and voila the locker opens. At least there is no key to lose.
There are 10 slides. We did not have time to go on them all. But that's okay. We were actually too old for 3 of them. Ages 2 to 4 only? Can you say ageist?
We also didn't make it into the play area which had another 3 slides, with no age or height restrictions. It looked like a lot of fun especially when the fire fighting bucket dumped 300 gallons of water on everyone.
We didn't even make it into the leisure pool, hot tub or vortex pool. We did however have multiple rides on the big 4. While not the biggest, or the longest, or the fastest or the highest slides in North America, they were just perfect for us. I'm not actually a fan of big water slides - I managed to knock myself out going down the water slide at the world jamboree in Sydney. That kind of turned me off them for awhile.
The Mach 1 slide has a minimum height of 48". Miss M was tall enough. Not sure what would have happened otherwise. This is the only ride that you don't take a tube with you. It's just you and your swimsuit. Oh, if your swimsuit has any metal decorations the staff will not let you on this slide. We saw them turn away several people who had metal grommits on the pockets of their boardshorts.
Mach 1 is the orange slide. The description from the website says, "This is a high-speed enclosed body slide with tight wrapping turns, switchbacks and drop sections that leave the stomach in the air. Riders shoot down this slide at daring speeds." None of the 4 of us were overly impressed with it. Also because you can only slide one at a time the line up took forever. We only went down it once.
Tail Spin is the blue slide. Hubby and I took a double tube. From the website, " This is a high-energy single/double inner tube ride that features fast acceleration off the start and transitions into a tight series of figure eight high banking curves." This one we all liked. I think we went two or three times. The last time we all took single tubes, it's much slower. The double tubes with the weight of two adults move a lot faster. Next time, double tubes all the way.
The yellow slide is the Sonic Boom. "This slide offers an “outdoor water park” feel with a view of most of the park. Above the roof, the top section of the slide is transparent to allow glimpses of the shape of the plane and building. Inside the park the top section of the slide is removed and there is an open top. Better suited for first time or novice riders this is a superb lead up ride to the higher energy rides." Um, yeah. Translation = boring. We only did this once as well. Then it was back to the Tail Spin.
Everyone's favourite slide? The green one. The Nose Dive. Joanna was a bit concerned, because she thought we had to go down head first. No idea why it's called the nose dive, but you go feet first. Well most of the way! The best part is the big bowl above. Hubby called it the toilet bowl slide.
"Nose Dive is a high-energy two-person inner tube ride that combines a fast initial drop into a high rate bank turn. It leads the riders into a dark oscillation section before ‘breaking out of the clouds’ through a hologram image and into the circular bowl below. The ride culminates with a smooth transition and dropout for a spectacular splash and water landing."
Apparently there's a hologram just before the bowl, but we all missed it. Not to worry, the slide was still awesome. I'm not sure how many times we went down this one. Lots.
We finished off the day in the wave pool, or Splash Down Harbor as it's officially known. Hubby needed it to be a little deeper, even with the waves on he could still touch the bottom. The rest of us were fine. We missed Dive In movie night, it was the night before. You can relax in the pool and watch a movie on the big screen. This week it was Jaws.
Lunch was a burger, fries and a drink from the Milky Way Cafe upstairs. The portions were good, the food not bad, and for $6.00 there were no complaints. We missed the H2O museum. It sounds like it might have been worth a look. I'm not sure any of us even knew it was there.
Overall it was an afternoon well spent. I think we would all agree that we got our money's worth. Our only suggestion is that they need a combo pass or a 2 day pass with the museum and the waterpark.
note the attention to detail. We are walking back down the entry road from the museum/waterpark to the airport. Even the road is painted to look like a runway. The building you can see is the headquarters for Evergreen Aviation, and infront of the building is a plane. It looks like it's taking off down the runway.