‘CoCo Key’ Articles at Sweetnicks

Visit: Sahara Sam’s {West Berlin, New Jersey}

November 5, 2013 · Narrative

An indoor water park in South New Jersey makes a perfect escape for a day trip.

When I took the kids and a friend of Nick’s to Dorney Park in September, it was an overcast and dreary day. Luckily, all was ok in terms of riding the rides and doing sightseeing, but it was too iffy for the water park, so we skipped it.

And the kids were majorly disappointed, because they are all about water. Like they would seriously spend all day, every day at the lake, the beach, or any other small or large body of water if I let them.

So I promised them a consolation prize.

That I would plan a trip to Sahara Sam’s for the next month (October), and we would make a day out of it.

Little did they know, I already had free passes to Sahara Sam’s, tucked away for just the right time.

‘Cause I’m sneaky like that.

(And although people might think I’m silly for collecting Coke rewards, I’ve been doing it for about three years now, and that’s exactly how I got the free passes. So there.)

The indoor water park is open from 10 am until 7 pm, and our goal was to leave in the morning, when everyone was up, and be down there by lunch. It’s about an hour and a half away from us, but a pretty easy, mostly highway drive.

Which was totally narrated by two eleven year old boys in the back seat and their video game sound effects.

…

Visit: Philadelphia Zoo

November 12, 2012 · Narrative

When we were planning our recent trip to CoCo Key for belated birthday celebrations for Nick, I found out that the Philadelphia Zoo was less than fifteen minutes away. So with two kids that are crazy about animals, all of them, it was a given that we had to squeeze a visit in.

I mean, really.

The zoo was pretty simple to find. Much easier than finding that Liberty Bell. But the parking situation? Like whoa. The lots are quite a ways down the street from the zoo, and the later you arrive, the further away you park. We probably walked a good three-quarters of a mile from our car to the entrance. And it’s a fairly busy street that you’re walking along, and have to cross.

So my tip for you? Get there early. ‘Nuff said. But the happy footnote on the parking situation is that they’re in the process of building a parking garage right next to the zoo, which is due to be completed in the Spring of 2013. Which is all sorts of awesome.

Whether you visit the zoo then, or before, don’t let the parking deter you from going.

Because the zoo is seriously one of the most beautiful zoos we’ve been to. Such gorgeous habitats for the animals around every corner.

The next few pictures are actually murals located outside the zoo grounds, on the walk from the parking lot. So that just tells you how pretty it is inside…

…

Pin It

Visit: Liberty Bell {Philadelphia, PA}

October 27, 2012 · Narrative

So when I found out that the Philadelphia Zoo was only 12 miles from where we were staying on Nick’s belated birthday celebration weekend, it was a given that we would visit it.

I mean, seriously. My kids + animals = no brainer.

And when we were renting a stroller at the zoo because we seriously had to walk like a mile just to get to the entrance, I asked the friendly stroller rental girl how far exactly the Liberty Bell was from the zoo.

“Less than 15 minutes.”

So it stands to reason that we couldn’t NOT visit the Liberty Bell.

And I could have totally taken this line of rationale until we ended up somewhere in the middle of the country looking for other national treasures. But four kids, busy weekend, I didn’t want to overdo it, you know?

I mean, a girl’s gotta know her limits.

Which means another trip to Philadelphia is definitely in the offing because there’s still so much to see and do.

But the Liberty Bell? I don’t know, for some reason I was fixated on it.

I’m 42 years old. And, doing some rough math, we’ve lived under two hours from the Liberty Bell for about 30 years of my life.

And I’ve never seen it.

And little facts like those are how my future bucket lists with the kids (oh you should see the things we want to do together!) get made.

Because while I have been to Brussels, and Crete, and Scotland, and Paris. I haven’t seen the Grand Canyon. Niagara Falls. And a million other places in the good US of A.

Growing up, with my Dad’s old job, there was a lot of international travel, not so much domestic.

So there is a lot of ground to cover.

Like literally.

So the bell.

When we left the zoo, it was after 3 pm on Sunday. I seriously debated. Go find the bell or just go home. Should we? Shouldn’t we?

We went for it. I told the kids, who really wanted to go see it, that we would see if we could find it, how busy it was, and the parking situation. We would give it a go.

Using the GPS, I found the area and went up and down the streets. Partially because the Google’d address wasn’t specific. I could tell the general area of where the bell was supposed to be, but couldn’t tell specifically. As in there it is and here’s where I should park.

And part of the problem? Because for some wild reason, in my mind’s eye, I pictured the bell being at the top of some grassy plain, open and out. I know, weird.

Because it’s clearly not.

Which is why I was having trouble figuring out where exactly the darn thing was.

…

Pin It

Visit: CoCo Key Water Resort, Hotel ML, Talia’s Restaurant {New Jersey}

October 15, 2012 · Narrative

Back in July, as Nick’s birthday was fast approaching, I asked him what he’d like to do in terms of a party. He decided that he wanted to take one friend away for a trip to a indoor water park resort, instead of having a party. At the time, he was thinking about Great Wolf Lodge, where we had been with Mystic and his kids back in October (super late review coming one of these days!), but then I heard about CoCo Key in Mount Laurel, which was a little farther from us (and in the opposite direction), but the same general concept.

And so a plan was born.

It doesn’t make sense to me to go to an indoor water park during the summer, so we planned to do it when the weather started getting a little cooler (and an escape to an 80 degree indoor resort was more in order). Between sports schedules and various other interferences, it finally landed on the calendar mid-October.

Like Great Wolf, there is a hotel in the same building as the resort, as well as a restaurant, making it very convenient. After our last soccer games on Saturday morning, we packed up the car, picked up Nick’s friend and Mystic’s daughter, Taylor, and headed off.

I ended up getting a great package deal that included the hotel room, four passes to their water park, four passes to the nearby Philadelphia Zoo (separate review coming soon), and $20 worth of credit for the hotel’s arcade. We checked in, and made our way to the room, ready to unload our stuff and get bathing suits on right away.

As soon as we walked in, I noticed the handle and lock hanging off the sliding door that led outside. In a first floor room. Me. Four kids. First floor room with a broken slider. No bueno. I called the front desk and the phone rang and rang and rang. I gave up and schlepped all the way back to the lobby (there is a lot of walking to be had at this hotel), and explained the problem. They promised to send an engineer down to look at it and would move us if it couldn’t be fixed.

We waited 20 minutes and decided to head off to the water park in the meantime. By the time we returned over two hours later, they still hadn’t come, I voiced my opinions, and we eventually got moved. Much better.

The kids and I watch Hotel Impossible, and it might have spoiled us. Or maybe we just like dust-free hotels. The bathroom had a $10 coffeemaker (at best) with a serious layer of dust on it. The dresser’s finish was wearing thin. The tv in the first room didn’t work. The rooms are a stark dichotomy to the image the hotel seems to be trying to project. They have bell hops, ready to help you with your bags, but the rooms look seriously tired. But the beds and bedding were bright white and clean (except for that all-important top blanket that we always remove right away; ick), and it was a decent place to stay. For what we needed, it was fine.

…

Pin It