August 9, 2025
This morning started at the resort adventure park. We were told we needed to make reservations in advance for all of the activities here, but the whole process has proven to be pretty relaxed. We showed up at 9am, they asked us our room number, never checked it against anything and we were off! The adventure course was only ~5 feet off the ground which made our kids scoff at first given that they’ve done ziplines higher at this point. I nudged them discreetly and told them to zip it and assured them it would be plenty challenging. When the instructor gave the safety demo, Ollie piped in to ask if we’d be getting gloves and were told that we wouldn’t. Turns out we sure would have liked to have gloves!
Kyle went to the gym this morning which left Jeff to supervise and support from the ground while Red and I joined the boys on the course. Once the order was set on the safety wire, there was no way to jump ahead or behind so we were beholden to an order of: Len, Me, Bradley, Ollie, Brycen, Red. Despite being fairly low to the ground, some of the shakier obstacles still proved to make Len quite nervous and he had a few slips. I was able to pull him up by his safety rope most of the time, but one obstacle was super difficult to yank him up. There was a small board hanging by two ropes on either end (like an old school swing) but it was very shaky and hard to balance on, especially for a 4 year old. Jeff had to provide support from the ground to boost him up which definitely didn’t help his back pain situation. I ended up with a huge scratch under my arm from the safety wire from trying to balance myself while yanking Len up and a huge bruise on the back of my other arm from an unknown origin. Regardless, the kids love the obstacle course, and the few ziplines along the way, so overall this activity was a winner.
We attempted to go stand up paddle boarding at 1pm, but learned the staff take lunch from 1-3pm so no one was there to unlock the boards or give us paddles. We opted to play in the water and jump off the dock for a bit which resulted in the boys pushing one another off the dock and subsequently fighting over our one raft. Kyle joined the water play and seemed to maintain some semblance of peace while Brycen and I watched from the shore. Ollie had been pleading to return to the aqua park from the get go and finally convinced the other boys to head that way. After another hour on the aqua park, some of us opted to then go out in the nearby kayaks instead of walking all the way back to the paddle boards. Kyle and Ollie stayed on for even more aqua park time. After about 10 minutes in the kayaks, Lenny and Brycen asked to be brought back to the aqua park so Kyle was back to playing monster for a bunch of kids again while Red and I enjoyed some quiet kayak time.
After our incredible meal yesterday, the adults all struggled with the idea of returning to the resort buffet. We strung together meals of leftovers and snacks throughout the day but by late afternoon, we were all quite hungry. We got ice cream for the kids while we left the beach area to head back to our cottages to get ready for dinner. As we left the beach, group aqua aerobics was starting and it was impressive to see the enthusiasm from the instructor as well as about a hundred participants. I think Kyle and I are looking forward to some quieter and less crowded conditions during our upcoming stop in Romania, though.
Later on for dinner, we went back into Pakoštane hoping to have another great meal to send the Bonks off. After 6 days in Croatia, they leave for Rome early tomorrow morning. Despite loving the meal we had yesterday at lunch, we didn’t want to repeat restaurants so instead chose the most highly rated restaurant in town. This ended up being a major misstep and we all questioned where all those google reviews came from. We knew early on into the meal, before we even put in our order, that this place would be a major downgrade from lunch yesterday. Service was slow despite not being crowded, they were out of the fish that we were excited to order, they were also out of the wine we ordered and we had to ask repeatedly for plates and napkins. A misunderstanding also led to only 1 entree being delivered across 4 adults. We then had to place another order for more food to feed the adults and by this time the kids were clamoring to move along. The food was fine but not the meal we had in mind!
We then embarked on a mission for gelato and a walk by the water to end the night. Pakoštane was a lively town at that time of night and it was fun to see all the vendors out in the streets and carnival-like activities open up for the kids. Me and Len stopped to check out some bracelets a little girl was selling for 1 Euro each. He picked out one with a butterfly charm and was so pleased to give her his coin. We’re hoping to back tomorrow night with our kids to return to our tried and true restaurant and to let the kids try the trampolines and “cars for kids” as Len says.
After a whine-filled 30 minute walk, we made it back to the resort and to our cottages. The boys briefly barged into the Bonks’ place to say farewell and I was surprised to not see any tears from our boys as they said goodbye to their friends. On the walk to our cottage, Ollie whispered softly to me, “Man I’m really gonna miss them.”
