When Family Fun Goes Awry

Since this is the month of focusing on doing fun things as a family, something should be made clear from the beginning: Sometimes even the best laid plans can go wrong. Very wrong.  In that case, there are two obvious options--either making the most of the moment, or coming up with a Plan B (which just might be even more fun than Plan A).  Either way, the good news is that even plans gone wrong can make memories to last a lifetime.  :) 

The following is one of our "Family Outing Fails".  Somehow, even though we managed to keep our good humor throughout the evening, this is funnier to me now than it was then:

Last fall I saw a brochure advertising a Taste the World Tour which is basically a progressive supper during which you walk from one ethnic restaurant to another in the city of Lancaster, getting a little taste of each restaurant.  With visions of my husband and I walking down the street pushing a double stroller full of happy children on a balmy fall evening, we scheduled ourselves for the experience. 

As it turned out, it was raining when we got there.

That meant we had to shelve the happy family walking idea and decided to drive from place to place.  For me, cities are dreadful places to drive in, being littered with one way streets and nightmarish things called parallel parking spaces.  Therefore, I opted to be the person to run out in the rain from eatery to eatery while John dropped me off and made loops around the block because most convenient parking spaces were unavailable.  The children quickly lost interest in both the loops and the ethnic assortment I was coming back to the van with (Mediterranean flatbread, Greek olives and cheeses, empanadas from Puerto Rico...) and waxed emotional in the back seat.

Meanwhile, I did my share of waiting for them in the rain with no umbrella, carefully shielding the appetizers with extra napkins to keep them dry.  I finally pleaded "uncle" to the whole plan when I was cold and wet and standing on the curb outside of Himalayan Curry & Grill where its lights and warmth beckoned to me and while my vegetable croquettes were being threatened by the rain.  John looped back around to where I stood; our intermittent siren wailed from hunger in the backseat.

That is when we abandoned the tour & ended up in Burger King, which is about as far from aromatic Mid-Eastern cuisine as you'll get.  As we monitored the consumption of greasy fries and chicken nuggets, I saw the same resolution in John's eyes that I felt in my own:  We'd definitely be back but with two major modifications: a babysitter and an umbrella.

The other change the evening brought about was in our then-three-year-old who developed a temporary aversion to loops.  We were going to Lancaster several weeks later to tutor English and a worried voice behind us said, "Mommy, are we doing loops?"