I SCREAMED as I slid down the pitch black tunnel. I pointed my toes and leaned back so that I would drop down faster, and then I screamed again. Suddenly, I burst out into the light with a big splash. Lily was waiting for me. “Did you like it?” she asked.

“Let’s go again!” I said in reply. We held hands as we bounded for the stairs. She went up quickly, lithe as a little sprite. She was soon out of sight as I lumbered up the four flights of steps behind her, but she waited for me at the top and we went down the water slides again.

We were spent the morning in the hot, humid water park, splashing, swimming, and laughing. By the time our fingers were wrinkled and pruny, we went back to our hotel room, packed our bags, and bundled up. We headed out to the parking lot. Now we were slipping and sliding on the poorly plowed pavement rather than sliding down a tube of water.

That afternoon, we headed out into the sunshine and the snow. We had arrived at Grandpa’s house! The temperature was winter-warm. The snow was just right for packing into snowmen and snowballs.

We searched for good snowman making materials; long, curly sticks from a willow tree, dry brown leaves and smooth gray stones, plump red berries that had fallen on the snow.

It was a day of opposites; swimming, water slides, snowmen and snowballs. What fun it was!