Schlitterbaun

On our fourth day in Texas, we made the short drive to New Braunfels to visit Schlitterbaun, the best waterpark in the world. I'm not just saying it's the best because I like it, I'm saying it because it is.  Schlitterbaun has won the Golden Ticket Award (the Oscars of amusement parks) for best waterpark every year since 1998.  It is such a fun and amazing place.  It was made even more amazing by the fact that the Qs met us there.  The kids haven't seen their cousins in two years, but they didn't miss a beat.  We arrived at the park a little before the Qs, so we waited on them at the front entrance.  I loved how Olivia and Owen were standing outside waiting excitedly for their cousins to arrive.  As they were walking up Olivia said "I see Rachel, and there's Andy".  Owen was like, "I see them, I see them all". This just made my heart so happy because even though we don't see them often, they are still so glad to be together.





Let me just say, the Qs are experts when it comes to navigating Schlitterbaun. The park is huge.  I mean, you have to take a bus to get from one side of it to the other.  But, they had a plan.  Leslie had packed a picnic lunch for us all, so our first stop was to claim our picnic spot and "base" for the day.  They led us to their usual spot- a nice shaded area in the older part of the park.  Once we had put everything in our spot, we caught the bus to the newer part of the park and went to ride the Master Blaster watercoaster- the most popular ride in the park. We then did a few laps in the not-so-lazy river and rode another slide or two.  We then returned to the older side of the park where we spent the remainder of our day.

 

The older side of the park is my favorite.  On this side, there are chutes which I think are just so much fun.  I'd much rather be on a chute than on a traditional water slide.  Also, a lot of the water attractions in the older area use water from the adjacent Comal River.  One of the chutes even ends in the river and you have to float down a ways to get back into the park.  We had an absolute blast at Schlitterbaun.  I think it was worth the drive to Texas just to be here with the Qs.