Today we drove out to McMinnville to check out the new Wings and Waves Waterpark at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum.

As soon as you walk through the main doors you are IN the waterpark. From the leisure pool (with a water Vortex, basketballs hoops, and a hot tub), to the Oregon forest themed play structure (with three kid-sized slides, a 300 gallon dump bucket, and lots more guns, buckets, and valves) and “Splashdown Harbor” the 91,000 gallon wave pool (with varying wave patterns and underwater bubblers). Oh and we can’t forget the four water slides that come out of the giant 747 on the roof! Sonic Boom (the yellow slide) is a great beginner slide, but still fast and exciting. Tail Spin (the blue slide) has figure eight banking curves but the real thrill is that the majority of the slide is in total darkness! Nose Dive (the green slide) has some steep drops and fast turns and ultimately drop you (around and around and around) in a huge funnel. The final slide, the Mach 1 (the orange slide), is the only slide you have to be over 48″ to ride and cannot go on a tube (the other slides can be done on a single or double tube and you only have to be 42″). I personally didn’t go on this one, but our friends found it wildly entertaining with a face full of water at the end.

Ana’s personal favorite is the wave pool. She puts on a life jacket and swims, body surfs, and floats around in the water like a little fish. The waves are really strong closer to the “shore” so as soon as the alarm that indicates the waves are coming sounds, we head to deeper water where the waves are still strong and rolling but don’t crash down on you and leave you choking on water. Then once the waves come to a stop, watch out for the bubblers that spontaneously erupt volcanoes of underwater bubbles!

Despite the fact that we went on a weekday, there were several school buses in the parking lot which resulted in longer lines for the waterslides, so we played in the wave pool and the leisure pool between slides to break things up. After trying everything Ana could go on at least twice (Sim and I took turns walking around with Hadley or letting her splash around in the warmer leisure pool) we ended with a soak in the hot tub. Then we decided to get cleaned up (they have several family bathrooms!) and go check out the water museum.

The H20 Museum was like a mini OMSI. It was very hands-on and perfect for children (and grown-up children too) to explore and experiment while learning. We walked in the door and Ana made a beeline for the submarine.

Then played around with a periscope.

She even sailed a boat down the Columbia River from the mountains, over the Bonneville Dam, and all the way down to the Astoria Bridge.

Then she played with a wave machine that showed how waves start in the ocean, react with buoys, and finally crash onto the shore.

Then we got to see what happens when water is a gas…

…and when it turns solid.

She loved exploring the space shuttles and lunar rovers. There were lots of buttons to push and simulators to test.

And finally she did some astronaut training and checked to see how she “measured up.”

All in all, we had a great time. It’s definitely worth the trip, and it’s a total bonus that it’s only an hour drive. At $25-30 per person, the admission price is a bit steep, but it is very nice that you can just make a day of it. We were there for about five hours and never had a chance to get bored. In fact, we would have stayed longer if we weren’t all getting tired and hungry. Our final thoughts? TWO THUMBS UP!!