A Memorable Memorial Day

Memorial Day. A beautiful, warm, sunny clear day.  We've made plans with my folks and Kath's family to meet at the beach for a day in the sun. A little cookout. A nice day with the family. 

Imagine a picture of Parker eating his first handful of sand, here. 

Imagine a picture of Maia putting her feet in the 50º water here.

Parker's face after his first foray into Lake Michigan.

Where are these pictures?

Our plan was to be at the lake shore between 10-10:30.  We were just starting to get ready at 8:30, I'd had a rare extra hour of sleep that morning.  So we started a bit behind schedule. It's partially my fault.  I should have loaded the car the night before. And we had some issues with children listening.  But we were on the road, minus gas in the car and ice in the cooler, by 10. Should be okay. It's about a 40 minute drive.

We're 5 miles away from the beach. We turn a corner, and it's a parking lot of cars. What's going on? An accident?  No cop cars or any posted detours.  In fact, there really isn't anywhere to even turn around to try to find another route.  After being stationary for about 20 minutes, Maia announces she needs to go potty.  Did you put her in a pull up? No, I thought you were doing that. Oh boy.  A few minutes later, Maia announces, "It's okay. I went potty, but it's okay, momma." Sigh.

After about 40minutes, traffic starts moving. Slowly. As we drive into town, it occurs to me that it was probably a parade that was holding us up.  But I am surprised that there was no re-routing of traffic, given the fact that Memorial Day is also a huge beach holiday.

We continue on our way, more than a bit annoyed.  One mile out from the beach, we see that traffic is again heavy, trying to get into the state park.  We find our way around much of the traffic and take our place in line.  Where we wait. And Wait.  Parker, who was sleeping, is now awake and whining. Lunchtime is approaching, and the kids are hungry. We're getting frustrated, as traffic isn't moving. We've let people in, and other people have taken advantage of street side parking lots and cut in front of us.

It is now about 12:15 pm. I've given Maia a pack of fruit snacks that I had in my purse, but there is nothing much I can do for Parker, who is now in need of a diaper change.  One hour into this wait, we are finally in the driveway to the state park. We can see my parent's motorhome, where they are firing up the grill so we can eat lunch. There is most of a row of empty parking next to them. We inch forward, beyond frustrated, we are just done.  Two Park Staff members are walking down the drive. They walk to a sawhorse sign and put it directly in front of our car; Park Full.

You have got to be kidding me.  I object, I tell the part staff  "We're meeting family, they're right there!" I point. "Sorry."  No explanation, no suggestions. The park is full is the only answer we get.

That's it. We are Heading Home.  We peel off from the drive, stop in front of where my folks are parked, and tell them what has happened. They suggest we park on the street... but there is no parking within blocks.  Sorry, we need food and a bathroom. We cannot drive around for another 30 minutes to look for a parking spot.  We drive off and head to Burger King, where the very hungry children pound their lunch.

Once we're back on the road, we find out by text that within 5-10 minutes they were letting cars in again, and not only that, the parking spots around my folks never filled up the entire day.  Thanks Park Staff.  Thanks for your failure to appropriately communicate.  Thanks for making a bad morning worse. In addition to our frustration and annoyance, I was feeling both guilty for not getting us out of the house earlier, but that Parker was missing out on this first beach experience.  We don't often get to the beach, and this arrangement with the motorhome is really a nice option for getting out of the sun.

Back home, we put kids down for nap. I thought I'd make up for it by inflating their kiddie pool, only to find that we'd lost the adaptor for the air pump. Out to the store to find a replacement. Home. I inflate the pool, but unfortunately, it took so long that the water didn't have time to warm up before the kids were up and wanting to play.  So the water was extremely cold, but they made the best of it.  Maia wouldn't sit down, but Parker didn't really have a choice!

 So he didn't stay in for long.

 Maia loved the sprinkle feature.

Parker sports his fancy purple ear plugs.

While the kids were playing, I thought I'd go ahead and fire up the grill for hot dogs. I turn on one burner, then the other. Click. Click. Click. Fantastic. We are out of gas. No problem, I'll grab the spare tank... which is also empty. Sigh. 

After getting a new tank, Ray also brought me a much needed refreshment.

What a day!