Sliding away from winter
Looking to beat the winter doldrums? Throw the kids in the
car (with their birth certificates) and head north of the border to Niagara
Falls, Canada.
The Americana Resort boasts an indoor water park that caters to the 12-and-under
crowd. Friendly, clean, and reasonably priced, it also has a spa and a comedy
club.
Rooms are $103 to $200 off season ($150 to $250 during
peak), and the park is open every day. Rates include park passes (the number
depends on room size), with extra passes $25. If you arrive early to take
advantage of the park before check-in, leave your stuff in your car and bring a
beach bag. There are lockers and a changing area. (Good for first arrival, but
small, so rely on your rooms for changing after check-in.)
Towels and life vests are free to guests, but I suggest you
bring supplemental towels. The park has a zero-entry wave pool (5 feet at the
deep end), a 3-foot-deep basketball court pool, two body slides, and two tube
slides. There is a really cute baby pool and a dump-bucket, water-fun-house.
The lifeguards are strict about rules, but unbelievably friendly. Pool
temperature is kept at 83 degrees, air temp around 90 degrees.
There is an arcade, but I don’t recommend it. The restaurant
is Applebee’s-type. Food is decent and you can most likely please your children
and yourself. If not, you’re on a strip with hundreds of family-friendly
restaurants.
Close to Niagara Falls
attractions and an outlet mall, this place got two thumbs up from all three
parents and five kids in our party. Info at
www.americananiagara.com, or call 800-263-3508.
— Jennifer Sanfilippo
This week for families
The Wizard of Oz Fri-Sun, Feb 10-12. RAPA
Playhouse, 727 E Main St.
Fri 7 p.m., Sat 2 and 7 p.m., Sun 2
p.m. $13. Tix available at Wegmans. 325-3366
Complicated potatoes again
My kids tell me I’m like the dad in Arthur, the PBS show, always slinging complicated potatoes when
they’d prefer French fries. When we’re out for meals, neighboring adults
(usually elderly), will comment about what open-minded eaters our children are,
and I’ll mumble some cynical reply. Sure, my kids will eat chicken makhani and avocado maki rolls,
but a cheese other than sharp white cheddar? Fuggedaboudit. Heck, only
one out of the three will touch a hamburger, and only one a hot dog (not the
same one, of course).
They’re not even that bad. I have a niece who eats cereal
and pasta, period. That’s bad. And at least they don’t have food allergies and
intolerances (as it seems a statistically impossible number of children are
claimed to have). But it’s frustrating for an old (OK, let’s say aging) foodie.
My parents didn’t pander to my pickiness at all. If we were
having steak and kidney pie, that was what there was (and I hated that stuff). Tomato
aspic?Tough luck, kid. Now my dad, who was
once such a hardass, is an apologist for his
grandchildren. He says times are different now, that parents are forced to eat
out more, and that this, naturally, engenders a short-order mentality in our
kids. Uh-huh.
I still feel like it must be my fault. So I try to push the
boundaries. Knowing they like chicken and tomato sauce (well, two out of
three), we try cacciatore; no dice, but a noble effort. Finally, my eldest will
eat soups, so now we can move in that direction. And I know better than to dig
too deeply into Paula Wolfert’sCooking of the Eastern Mediterranean, but I’m going to try that
every now and then anyway. And when all else fails, homemade French fries are
actually awfully good.
— Adam Wilcox
This article appears in Feb 8-14, 2006.
