16

Finally, the seagull beat me in our tug-of-war and flew straight up through the sunroof, taking the cheese curls with it. But the seagull didn't get far with the bag. About three-quarters of the cheese curls ended up BACK in the minivan, and from there it was a total nightmare.

最后，海鸥在我们的拔河比赛中打败了我，直接从天窗飞了上去，带走了奶酪卷。 但是海鸥并没有带着袋子走多远。 大约四分之三的奶酪卷最后都回到了小货车里，从那里开始，这完全是一场噩梦。

A few of the seagulls flew up front, and Rodrick got so freaked out he hit the gas. When the birds finally cleared out and things settled down, we had a whole NEW problem to deal with. Believe it or not, the people in the car that we rear-ended were actually pretty nice. It was a man and his wife, and they seemed to understand it was an accident. So they exchanged insurance information with Dad, and the police didn't even need to get involved. If anything GOOD came out of the accident, it was that it got us out of going to the beach.

几只海鸥飞到前面，罗德里克吓坏了，他猛踩油门。 当鸟儿们最终离开，一切都安定下来时，我们又有了一个全新的问题要处理。 信不信由你，被我们追尾的那辆车里的人其实很不错。 那是一个男人和他的妻子，他们似乎明白这是一场意外。 所以他们和爸爸交换了保险信息，警察甚至都不需要介入。 如果说这次事故有什么好处的话，那就是它使我们不必去海滩了。

The BAD news was that now our van wouldn't start, and we had to wait an hour for a tow truck to come. All the traffic went down to one lane, and that didn't make us too popular with the people trying to cross the bridge. The guy at the auto repair shop said we cracked the radiator and it was gonna take at least four or five hours to fix it. That meant we needed to find something to do for the rest of the day.

坏消息是我们的货车发动不起来了，我们得等一个小时拖车来。 所有的车辆都集中在一条车道上，这使我们不太受过桥的人的欢迎。 汽车修理店的人说我们把散热器弄坏了至少要四到五个小时才能修好。 这意味着我们需要找点事情来打发这一天剩下的时间。

When we stepped outside, I was pretty shocked to find out we were only two blocks away from Soak Central, which is where I wanted to go in the FIRST place. I BEGGED Mom to let us go there while we were waiting for the van to get fixed. She said she would rather we did something "wholesome" like go to a local library, but this time she was outvoted four to one.

当我们走出去时，我非常震惊地发现我们离浸泡中心只有两个街区远，这是我一开始想去的地方。 我求妈妈让我们在等货车修好的时候去那里。 她说她宁愿我们做一些“有益健康”的事情，比如去当地的图书馆，但这次她以四比一的票数被否决了。

So we walked to Soak Central and paid for tickets at the gate. Then we got a locker and put in all the stuff that we didn't want to get wet. We changed into our bathing suits and met outside the restrooms. It was SUPER crowded, and there was no way we were gonna find five lounge chairs all together. We eventually found ONE chair with a few broken straps, and dumped our towels and the rest of our stuff on it.

于是我们走到浸泡中心，在门口买了票。 然后我们找了一个储物柜，把所有我们不想弄湿的东西都放进去。 我们换上泳衣，在洗手间外面见面。 那里超级拥挤，我们不可能同时找到五把躺椅。 我们最终找到了一把带断了的椅子，把我们的毛巾和其他东西都倒在上面。

Mom and Dad stayed back with Manny, so me and Rodrick were on our own. But Mom said she wanted the two of us to stick together. We went to the giant wave pool first, but there were about a BILLION people in it. Rodrick suggested we play hide-and-seek, but with all the people and rafts in the pool, I knew it would be impossible for the seeker to find the hider.

爸妈和曼尼待在一起，所以我和罗德里克只能靠自己了。 但妈妈说她希望我们俩能在一起。 我们先去了巨大的波浪池，但里面有大约十亿人。 罗德里克建议我们玩捉迷藏，但水池里有那么多人和木筏，我知道找的人不可能找到藏人。