Day one of our spa adventure. We started out the day by driving for around 3 hours. Aatu went with another family, so I was able to drive with them on the way there. I was crammed in the back with Aada and Venla. The first thing we did was we found our cabin. It is warm and cozy on the inside. Two bedrooms, a living room, a bathroom and a sauna. The kids all slept in one room, Sari and Jarno in the other, and I slept on the pullout couch. Then we went to the main resort hall and had dinner, meeting up with Aatu and the family he drove with. We ate at this super nice sports bar. I order buffalo wings. I wasn't actual buffalo sauce, but they tasted good, so I didn't complain.
Next we all suited up for swimming. Men and woman all change in the same locker room. It is one big room with cubicles, and then you separate into the showering and sauna rooms. The pool/water park is the main attraction for kids, and I can understand why. It is unlike any pool I have ever seen. Most pools are brightly lit with florescent lighting. This one is dimly lit and the lighting is artfully designed so that everywhere you look there are colors reflecting off the water. There is a giant raised platform in the middle of the pool in which there are lights and water spouts embedded in the floor. The platform is always covered in around a half an inch of water, so it is perfect for splashing in. Every half hour or so music plays, and all the kids rush to the center platform. There begins a choreographed water and light display that the kids an run around in. I will try to get a video, but bringing my phone anywhere near the room is a recipe for disaster.
Another good thing that I appreciated was that the water and the air were both warm. Really warm. Uncharacteristically warm for a water park. Perfect for kids, and perfect for me because I am so sick. If it had been any colder I wouldn't have been able to swim. It is warm enough that the kids could stay in there for hours, and it is difficult to pull them away. There are also two slides. One that you can race your friends with (Aada’s favorite) and one that you use a tube to go down (Venla and Aatu’s favorite). The slide with the tube is huge, and most of it is outside the building. The pool itself is also unique. There are outcroppings with chairs in them, lazy rivers, all different depths and temperatures. The pool for babies feels like bath water.
