I do have some hope though. I hope that I may get one day of peace on a gulf coast beach and my unrealistic wish is that I get a chance to either swim with sharks or experience a hurricane.
Here is a picture of the snowman we are leaving behind in the back garden. He is a pretty gloomy looking snowman - maybe he knew the flurry of ice rain, hail and snow that was about to inundate him just as we left Thunder Bay - more of that later. Marj just noted the poop in the garden...I'm sorry I didnt notice. In fact I didnt even know snowmen pooped.So the family left pretty much after I finished work. We said goodbye to the pets, made our way to Target to pick up some holiday sandals and shoes and then suddenly the first tortuous cry emerged - "Dad I'm hungry!" The words every parent dreads. I cant understand how such small bodies need so much food...soo often!
I can go a whole day working hard and forget to eat but half an hour with these minions and we get the "i'm hungry" guilt trip. How come their hungry mouths dont come with sealable lips so once the food goes in they cant say anything else until you open them up again and shovel the next portion of oatmeal in?
So being the first day of the holiday, we decided to treat them to A&W. BIG MISTAKE!
Did you know $5.50 for 3 chicken strips does NOT include fries and a drink. By the time we had ordered everything for the kids, the bill on the screen was exceeding $50 and the parents hadn't even picked anything to eat yet! We promptly canceled our order and drove off, slowing down enough for me to give one of my disapproving looks to the young and somewhat confused-looking attendant in the drive through. McDonald's may be a lot of things but at least everyone ate for under $50!!
The only problem there was that the overhang on the drive through was positioned just so that any falling slush fell right through our window onto my arm. I'm not sure if anyone has had slushy ice drop on their arm before. It's horrible. It feels like a snowman just threw up on you! And the worst part is it trickling down your arm UNDER your jacket and you can't get to it - you just have to deal with it. Marj thought this was particularly funny.
Anyway we finally got our food and were on our way, slip sliding away - yes driving in unplowed, freshly covered roads of ice, slush and snow. Oh did I mention, Marj forgot to mention she has bald tires on the van. We almost died 3 times. That is - not we could die 3 times - you can only die once really but there were 3 times on our trip where I actually thought we were going to slide into the ditch.
Once we crossed the border the snow and ice just disappeared. We made it to Duluth and Marj only mentioned speed once...EVERY 2 minutes!
We arrived in Duluth, got a suite at the Days Inn opposite the mall (I'm guaranteeing Marj made the hotel choice based on location). Let me just tell you there is nothing fun about fitting a family of 7 into a room with just enough bed space, pillows and blankets for 6. Josh had some lights he got from his friend at school that he kept flashing in the darkness, Ella felt sick and Josh from out of the silence and concerned, advised her to turn the other way if she needs to throw up. Good advice son, good advice! We eventually got some snooze time in before the kids woke up at 5:30am.
Well here is the crazy family as we took off on my 1st day of torture. I survived with just a slight head ache and a frozen arm. My smile was pre-torture and Olivia was just getting her "word" out to her peeps on the street.
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