Who wouldn’t want a big bucket of cold water dumped on them?! Umm, me. But kids love it!
On the “outskirts” of west Wichita lies Goddard, Kansas. Goddard and west Wichita, however, are essentially growing into each other. Goddard has been growing over the past several years because USD 265-Goddard is growing. Also, Goddard may (or may not) be making expansions. The city has been planning for several years to build a large multi-purpose aquatic center and hotel complex. By large, I mean approximately 90 acres with a price tag of $60 million. There have already been two developers who have backed out of the project in the past two years. But a recent Wichita Eagle article on May 3, 2018, says that a Wichita local has agreed to finance and start the project. http://www.kansas.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/carrie-rengers/article210368829.html It’s supposed to be approved by July with construction starting between September and December. I’ll believe it when I see it. I hope that it happens though because I think it would be a great addition to Goddard and west Wichita.
Anyway, this post is about the new splash pad that was built by the City of Goddard and opened in May 2018. It’s a cool, little splash pad. It has multiple fountains, dueling Tiger (Goddard Eisenhower Middle and High) v. Lion (Goddard Middle and High) sprayers, and a gigantic bucket that dumps water. The bucket dumps approximately every minute. I timed it because it doesn’t have a bell or anything that warns you when the bucket will dump. The kids love the anticipation of when it will dump and finding the spot that will either get them completely soaked or miss them completely. It dumps every minute so long as the water is turned on. I think it’s a little tricky to figure out how to turn on the water, but you have to touch the blue top on one of the white fountains to turn the water on.
We then walked over to Mrs. Cole’s Tropical Sno, a sno cone place, that opened up last summer. It’s right on Main Street. It’s open every day in the summer, and then it’s only open on weekends until the Goddard Fall Fest (the first weekend in October). It serves sno cones in three different sizes with a large variety of flavors. You can make your own, or you can try one of the featured flavors. My daughter got Pina Coladalada (pineapple, coconut, and coconut cream). One of my sons got rainbow (blue raspberry, pineapple, and red raspberry), and my other son got Rock N’ Roll (blueberry, grape, and blue raspberry) with sour spray on top. It was sour! But he loved it. A few of my kids’ friends went with us, and one of them got the “YOLO.” Apparently since You Only Live Once, the employee gets to pick the flavors on your sno cone and you’re surprised. It looks like a rainbow sno cone, and she said it was really good!
The set-up inside is cool with little picnic tables and palm trees. It feels very tropical for downtown Goddard. There are so many flavor combinations that you could try over the summer. Also – they have a punch card, so after you buy 9, you get 1 free. It’s a great summer addition for Goddard. Splash pad, Goddard pool-goers, and baseball/softball players can come get a little treat after playing. Soo, for a fun little outing, try out the Goddard splash pad and Mrs. Cole’s Tropical Sno.