August 8, 2025
Everyone enjoyed a little extra sleep this morning and made it to breakfast near the end of the morning “feeding time” as we now refer to it. Lenny wasn’t ready for the day at breakfast and continued to ask to be returned to bed. After surviving the breakfast rush and meeting up with the Bonks there we decided we needed a day outside of the resort. We planned to get ready and walk the 15 minutes to Pakoštane.
It was hot out but the walk was mostly shaded, though we did add an extra 10 minutes by walking through the resort parking lot only to realize we were gated in and needed to return to the main entrance to leave. The walk was shaded by pine trees along the one road to town and nothing special until we came across a little fruit stand at the end of someone’s driveway. We bought a bag of figs and slices of watermelon which the kids, mainly Lenny, could not wait to get their hands on.
A block down the road we realized we were standing under a massive fig tree and picked a few. They were equally delicious to the ones we had bought but we did not feel too bad as the cost of the bag of figs was only 2 or 3 Euro. There were also pomegranate trees with fruits on them but they were not ripe yet.
We turned to head to the beach before reaching the heart of the little town as everyone was starting to heat up. The kids grabbed an ice cream while we figured out how to get chairs and an umbrella. We ended up with two chairs and an umbrella, which we somehow got away with never paying for.
The main attraction, besides taking a break from cruise ship resort life and food, was another, bigger, aqua park that we spotted from the submarine. We did not know that it had a blob but saw it once we arrived and our kids were thrilled. They had seen one from watching the movie Heavyweights and could not wait to get out there. Kayleen and I headed out there with the four kids while Jeff and Red got some good shots and videos from the beach. It was 10 Euro per person for an hour but they let Kayleen and I on for free so we could watch the kids.
I started by trying to do the short rope swing across a water pit. Mid swing the whole section of the aqua park collapsed into the water sending Kayleen flying in with me. No one looked alarmed by this happening so I guess it was a common occurrence and it fixed itself once I let go of the rope. Next up was trying out the blob.
First Ollie jumped on and tried to make his way out to the end to be launched by Bradley. We soon realized how hard it was to get to the end of the half-deflated blob without falling off. Eventually Ollie did it and Bradley jumped to launch him but he didn’t get much air so we moved on to me trying to launch them. Bradley was first and flew about 15 feet in the air while doing a flip. Then Ollie who got the most height but avoided a flip. Lenny got a gentler launch which sent him straight up, landing back on the blob before tumbling in the water. After some jumps on the trampoline and trips down the slide into the water our time was up and we needed lunch. I’m not sure if we would have ever been asked to get off the aqua park by the guy working there, he seemed half asleep, but Kayleen and I told the kids we had run out of time.
We packed up all our stuff and planned to return to Pine Beach after lunch, happy to move on before someone tried to collect for our chairs and umbrella! We walked down the road along the beach and found only burger stands and bars. After debating going to one we decided to force the kids to walk 5 minutes back to town in hopes of finding good food. It was totally worth it as we had one of the best meals of the trip!
We ended up at Gladne Oči Pakoštane. There were only a few other people eating there so we were able to sit down right away at a big table. There was one TV playing soccer which kept the kids interested while we ordered them a pizza. The adults had a Hugo Spritz and then some Croatian white wine while we waited for our seafood platter & meat platter to come. When it arrived, it looked and smelled wonderful. It was definitely too much food since we also ordered a dish of Ćevapi. We were able to take the extra home and thrilled not to go to “feeding time” for dinner.
The staff were all very kind and warm but especially one woman, I think in her late 50s. She talked to us about the fish, de-boned it in 30 seconds with two spoons, told us how the fish she grilled for groups at home was even better, discussed the war for independence in the 90s that her husband fought in as part of the Croatian Special Force, and said Victory Day was the biggest holiday in Croatia. If every meal could be like this one the world would be a better place.
Kayleen and Red walked through the market and Jeff and I started the walk home with the kids. We made a stop at the fig tree for a free desert snack, then back to the fruit stand to buy another bag of figs and watermelon. Lenny was ready to take down a quarter of a large watermelon. He complained about the seeds so I started to pick them out but the stand owner was not happy about them being tossed on the ground so I had to wait until the walk to restart my seed removal.
I don’t really like watermelon but had a bite and it was delicious. Lenny made his way through the watermelon as we walked home, finishing all but a few bites by the time we arrived back at our house. We all showered and had some quiet time which led to a nap for me.
We decided to head to the Bonks to hang out on their porch and let the kids watch a movie, 3 Ninjas from 1992. We were all full from our lunch still so just had a glass of wine. Once the kids said they were hungry, after eating a giant bag of popcorn, Red heated up some leftovers from lunch. Once we all smelled that everyone was ready to have a little for a snack. After the movie we headed home to go to bed before the boys could start trying out ninja moves on each other.
