Saturday, 09 July 2011
Today we got ready for our little vacation, slated to commence tomorrow. It’s difficult to keep a six year occupied and happy on a day when all we are doing is packing, but Jennifer has come up with the idea of making schedules for Owen.
For example, today I wrote up a schedule with him that says
1:00 – ride bikes
2:00 – get the mail
3:00 – water the plants
5:00 – eat dinner
7:30 – read books
The problem is, Owen really wants to stick TO THE MINUTE (not sure where he got that behavior form). So he says things like, “Daddy, it’s already 1:03 and we are not riding bikes yet.” Even if I try to get things going right on time, he still gets alarmed. “I don’t have to get the book yet, because it’s only 7:29, and we are not supposed to read until 7:30.”
A couple of times today, he could be seen sitting in our bedroom staring at the digital clock. This, of course, is extremely boring, so it only lasts a few minutes. But in the meantime, it gives him something to do.
Today, I accidentally switched around the bike riding and the plant watering events, and Owen was rather disconcerted that I deviated so egregiously from the plan. So, we’ve still got some work to do.
Sunday, 10 July 2011
This morning, we loaded into the family car and headed north to Mille Lacs. If it seems odd to be leaving for a vacation on a Sunday, consider this: No traffic! And…cheaper hotel rates!
Before checking into our hotel, we briefly left the country by stopping at Grand Casino Mille Lacs. We waited inside for a few minutes for Jennifer’s parents to arrive, during which time Owen noticed the room was filled with smoke. Despite the temperature approaching 90 degrees, we decided it would be better for our health to stand outside. I explained to Owen that people are allowed to smoke indoors at the casino because the Ojibwe get to make their own rules, since they were here first. Owen felt this was logical, but thought that Ojibwe should have the presence of mind to outlaw smoking indoors anyway, since it’s bad for your health regardless of when your ancestors arrived in America. I told him that the primary concern of the casino, however, is to remove money from visitors’ wallets, and the longer people stay, the more money they are likely to waste. Owen seemed to think this was a good theory, but later we discovered that the casino serves no alcohol. Wow! Is that ever a wasted money-making opportunity. I should open a bar right across the street.
A few minutes later, we feasted at the casino’s buffet. In contrast to my last experience with a Grand Casino Buffet, I endeavored to not make a pig of myself. Alas, I succeeded only somewhat. On the upside, I did not vomit this time. On the downside, the mass-produced pesticide-ridden comestibles just burrowed right through my gut down to my —-
Monday, 11 July 2011
Today was largely a day of failures, though, since we were on vacation, they didn’t seem like that big of a deal.
First, I tried to walk to the Mille Lacs Kathio State Park with my dad-in-law this morning. Since the government has seen fit to kiss off billions of dollars in revenue and lay-off thousands of workers in the midst of a recession, this state park, like the rest of the state, is closed.
No problem, we figured we’d just walk there, hop over any barricades, and take some photos. We walked a whole mile to get there, and then turned around. Only it wasn’t due to any “Closed” signs. Nope, it was due to the horse flies. They were everywhere. They chased us the whole way, and I had to keep swinging my arms just to keep them from landing on me. My father-in-law was bitten twice. I had to blow one out of my nostrils, and I had to take my sunglasses off to get one from attacking my eye. They kept getting caught in my hair, too.
Later, we all drove up to a photo studio where we were supposed to meet up with Dad-in-law’s friend and tour her studio. When we got there, the place was closed.
Wisely deciding dad-in-law shouldn’t be in control of the day, we drove down to Onamia and stopped at a couple of stores. One store had an old-fashioned Mrs. Pac-Man arcade game. Owen had never played one before, so (even though we have the video game at home) I popped in a couple of quarters and we played it old-school style. Owen lsot out pretty early on, but I got far enough to see Mr. and Mrs. Pac-Man’s baby delivered via stork. Our home-version of the game does not have those mini-movie interludes, and Owen thought they were quite hilarious.
Later, I stayed back at the hotel with the kids while my wife went to the casino. She returned with more money than she had left with, so that’s all I care about. I didn’t go gambling; having played Mrs. Pac-Man earlier, I had spent all I needed to spent on electronic video games.
I left with $20.00 to spend and came back with $25.00. That is the best I’ve ever done – the other two times I came back empty handed.
We had a good time though, didn’t we. Stan got some good shots of you running to get away from the horse flys. I enjoyed my time with the grandkids.
I thought it was fun too. Not too much to do, but it was nice to be away from home for awhile and just relax and not have to cook. It was the perfect vacation for the kids because all they ever want to do is swim anyway.
Yes, I had a fun time, too.
It’s great just to get away and go somewhere new and do something different for a while. I hope to do something like this again next summer.