NJ Staycation: Day 4
One of my main goals for this week was to get these kids in a pool. So many of their friends were off to tropical places, and while they were psyched to be spending a week with their cousins, New Jersey at the end of April just isn’t Turks and Caicos, cousins or no cousins. My first thought was to get a day pass at one of the waterparks in the Poconos, but Great Wolf doesn’t offer day passes, Camelback was sold out, and Kalahari wanted $125 per person for the day. Six kids plus me times a 1.5 hour car ride equals one shit ton of money plus a no thank you. So I called up Lifetime Fitness in Florham Park to see if we could get day passes there. The woman on the phone kindly explained that while we couldn’t purchase day passes we could just come for the day to check out the gym. I explained that I had three extra children that were not my own. No problem. I explained that we really just wanted to go in the pool. No problem. At that point, I said to my self, “self, stop asking so many damn questions, this lady has a pool and she says you can use it!” So after filling out some forms online and emailing with a salesperson, we were good to go! I prepped the kids, letting them know that we may have to sit through a half hour sales pitch before we could use the magical pool. They were down and promised to be on their best behavior. However, when we got there, the lovely sales guy gave us a 5 minute tour and told us to enjoy the day. And that we did.
We got into our bathing suits in the family changing room, which is clean and spacious and offers large individual shower rooms and bathrooms, and plenty of lockers. Then we headed to the pool. The outdoor pool with slides was not open for the season yet, but the indoor pool kept the kids entertained for two full hours. It is also clean and spacious, and IT IS A POOL. I flipping nailed it!
We ate lunch in the cafe, which had some great, reasonably priced options for the kids (they mostly chose pizza, of course) and healthy options for the grownup. I got an acai bowl, which was kind of disappointing as they served it at an undesirable temperature I like to call lukecold.
After that we spent some time playing basketball and squash. They had two squash courts you could rent out for half hour intervals. The kids had never played before and actually neither have I, so it’s possible we played an entirely different sport of our own making. I would recommend asking for a racketball; the squash balls are not so bouncy and a little hard for the kids to keep moving.
Next up was the kids club. They were begging me to go, I swear! So, I went for a run on a really nice treadmill. All by myself! When I picked them up an hour later, they were happy, but ready to go. I think the kids club is more suitable for slightly younger kids; however, the employees were wonderful. They took them outside and into the basketball courts to keep them engaged.
Finally, at 4pm the rock wall opened up. There was an instructor there who got the kids suited up in their harnesses and gave some basic instructions. They have 5 self-belay courses, so we were able to do it all on our own for the most part.
Overall, this was an epic day of fun! Lifetime is a glorious place and I could definitely see us joining at some point in the future. Hmm, maybe they were selling me all along!
So that’s it! That’s how we spent 4 days with 6 kids in Northern Jersey. If you want to see the first three days, here they are:
