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Two In Tow & On The Go | The Splash Course Challenge — and the find-a-swimsuit-that-fits challenge

Posted on June 19th, 2026 By: Tonya Strickland

Always on the hunt for something fun and different to do, this Two in Tow adventure takes us 17.1 miles from Artondale to Fife, a small city about 5 miles northeast of Downtown Tacoma. Last weekend, on June 14, the kids and I visited the Fife Aquatic Center for the first time.

Fife Aquatic Center. 5410 20th St. E Fife.

The city-run center has two indoor saltwater pools, including a 150,000 gallon main pool with various sections for laps and open swim and a two-foot deep wading pool. The website says there’s also a hot tub there but we didn’t use that. The wading pool looked great for parents with babies and toddlers.

The Splash Course Challenge

Wyatt balances while crossing the hardest part of Fife’s Splash Course Challenge inflatable obstacle course. Photo by Tonya Strickland

Offering to challenge participants’ “speed, endurance, and swimming skills as (they) race against the clock,” the all-ages course has swimmers climbing over (and under) an inflatable cage, jumping to the next point, balancing across a skinny tube, scaling an incline and sliding down a wide air-filled slide — ending with a big whoosh into the water. Both kids said it was fun but also hard to stay on the route. And it’s likely most people will fall off the side and land in the pool during each run across. From what we saw last weekend, those who fall are welcome to climb right back up and keep going. I love that. Especially since the blow-up slide at the end seems to be a grand finale of fun.

The kids wait in line.

Our Splash Course Challenge was a two-hour session, with open recreational swim available in at least two other sections of the same large pool. The center even provided pool toys for kids to play with, including smaller inflatables. During the second hour of our reservation, an employee came out with a microphone and announced mini-challenges every 10 to 15 minutes. The tasks included things like “walk the course with your hands clasped behind your back” and “let’s see who can finish the course the fastest.” It cost about $17.50 per participant. We paid the non-resident-of-Fife price and pre-registered online. The flier said the event was for participants age 5 and older. That info is down below.

A swim test

The kids passed the swim test, so I didn’t have to go in the pool with them.

Like all the kids there, Clara, age 12, and Wyatt, age 10, were required to take a quick swim test before they could play on the splash course. They had to demonstrate that they could jump into the pool, float on their back, and swim a small section of the pool from one side to the other and back. If their demonstrations were successful, kids got a neon wristband that allowed them onto the course and into the rec swim areas as many times as they wanted for the whole two hours. For the kids who don’t pass the test or who don’t take it, a sign at the pool says younger than age 7 and “anyone wearing a life jacket” must have a registered adult in the water with them.

They took lessons for years (mostly for fun and also for safety), so Clara and Wyatt definitely know how to swim. But since we didn’t know what to expect, I still brought my swimsuit just in case. But luckily I didn’t change into a swimsuit only to get uncomfortably splashed by dozens of kids for two hours. It’s these little things that make me happy.

The night before

While we’re on the topic of swimsuits, let’s visit the night before the Splash Course Challenge, when I was doing laundry and packing goggles into the swim bag. I asked both kids to please try on their swimsuits from summer 2025 to confirm they still fit. Both kids replied with some variation of “Ummmmm, mama? We just wore them in California for Spring Break. Remember? They totally fit!” I would have pressed them on the matter had the cat not thrown up at that very moment, thus diverting my attention. Imagine that.

Blurry Clara completing the course and zooming down the big slide.

So. Now that we have been briefed on our pre-game discussions, would anyone want to guess whether Kid No. 1 and Kid No. 2 were correct in their judgements that their suits still fit? Or if anyone actually tried on their swimsuits beforehand? Yep. Both suits were too small, a truth that we realized inside the center’s changing room 5 minutes before go-time.

The center has a nice tot / wading pool.

Perhaps a kinder, more delicate mother would politely roll her eyes and keep any additional opinions on the topic to herself. But me? The less tactful parent? The one who just last week was met with audible gasps from third graders when she blurted out “Oh sh*t!” to an entire second floor of mostly quiet elementary school students? … Oh yes. My kids definitely got a whole ear-full of “I told you so!”

If the fit issue was just an after-the-pool-day problem, I may not have been so inclined to rub it in. However comma it was being met with a half-dressed child in the dressing room saying they couldn’t take one more step in their wildly tiny suit that really left me unfiltered. The other kid was able to deal with their suit size for just the day.

We’ll take one lost suit, please

The Fife Aquatic Center lobby has a retail section. Locker rooms and showers are on the right and left.

Luckily, I’m a mom who thinks on her feet … I even keep spare swimsuits in the car. (Although they were also too small. Ahem). But … the Fife Aquatic Center was noticeably equipped with lots of nice retail items in its spacious lobby – including swimming attire. (It was one of the features that caught my eye when I was first scouting out South Sound facilities with cool pools). We could just buy a new suit real quick. Easy peasy.

Now, I’m doing my best here not to disclose which child of mine needed the new swim attire, as my prior use of “swimsuit” could be a girl one-piece orrrrr it could be some boy swim trunks. While it’s apparently OK to embarrass my kids with accidental expletives during the school reading hour, I don’t actually want to cause them any grief in public.

But …

Would you believe that swimsuits of a certain gender were entirely sold out at said retail section, because, perhaps, our situation had happened so often to other such families before us?

So, there were no suits to buy. That left me with one kid, in their suit, ready to swim; and another, very uncomfortable kid, in a suit that wouldn’t budge. What’s a mom to do? Well, I also won’t say who may or may not have done this but it was brought to our attention that the aquatic center did, in fact, have quite a few long-forgotten swimsuits in its lost and found bin. A question was posed: Had we, perhaps, lost a suit? To which we replied, naturally, “Why, yes, we’d lost a size 12 suit! What a small world!” (And, ha, both my kids are size 12 right now so that’s not telling of which gender either).

A recap

All in all, our “lost suit” fit great; new suits have been ordered by yours truly; the Fife Aquatic Center is awesome; its Splash Course is super fun and different, as is its rec swim area; the kids didn’t want to leave so you know that makes it a win; and the staff rocks. They even let all the kids pick out free prizes of little toys and plastic flower leis at the end for completing the challenge, fastest or not.

On the way out, one of my children may or may not have walked on over to the front desk with our three too-small suits stashed in the swim bag (see how prepared I try to be?), slid all three across the counter and said “We’d like to lose these please.” LOL. So now there are three bonus suits in the Fife Aquatic Center’s lost and found, should this situation arise for anyone else in the future. (And we know it will).

While I don’t see another Splash Course Challenge on the Fife Aquatic Center’s events page yet, there’s a Neon Night at the pool from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, July 18, for $10 per Fife resident and $12.50 per non-resident. There will be music, glow sticks and two hours of public rec swim for up to 125 people of all ages during the event. Meanwhile, the Splash Course Challenge is rentable for birthday parties at the pool. Directly outside of the center, Fife’s adjacent Colburn Park has a splash pad and rentable cabanas. Oooo la la.

Outside the Aquatic Center is a splash pad.

See ya out there!

Fife Aquatic Center

Where: 5410 20th St. E, in Fife

What: Recreation/open swim, splash course events, swim lessons.

Costs: Various prices listed per activity. Registration required.

Info: www.fifewa.gov/150/Aquatic-Center

The calm pools after the event.

This is the event we attended.

Mom and two kids standing with water and boats in the background.

@two.n.tow

Tonya Strickland is a Gig Harbor mom-of-two and longtime journalist. Now in the travel and family niche, her blog, Two in Tow & On the Go, was named among the 10 Seattle-Area Instagram Accounts to Follow by ParentMap magazine. Tonya and her husband Bowen moved to Gig Harbor from California with their two kids, Clara (12) and Wyatt (10) in 2021. Find them on Facebook for all the kid-friendly places in and around town.