Days When Your Perscription Just Isn't Enough

Day #3.

A day that will live in vacation infamy.

The day started out normal enough. The kids got up and Chuckles fed them breakfast while the Man and I were lazy and stayed in the non-bed.

Agony #1 - Pictures. My brother's family has a tradition of going to those photo places were you get dressed up costumes and take your picture. They do this on their vacations and the photos look pretty cool. Chuckles had called the local photo place (the only one in town that did this sort of thing). He called on Monday. The guy said he wasn't open on Mondays. Ooookay. How 'bout Tuesday. Nope, had a lot of meetings that day. (Meetings? What, is he in a union or something?). Alrighty, what were the hours on Wednesday? He said he'd be open 11-5pm. My brother said we'd all be there just after 11. So we pile into our separate vehicles and head over. We arrive just after 11. The place is closed. Sign says he doesn't have any hours until Friday, the day we leave. Geesh...

Agony #2 - Movie. So we're strolling along the streets, thinking maybe we'd take in an afternoon movie. This is a small town. The local theater is only showing three movies. The only kids' show is Ratatouille. Only one listing and not until the evening. Dang.

Agony #3 - Lunch. We had lunch at the local Wendy's. We decided to go inside and sit down, enjoy the small town atmosphere. We stood in line for far too long...I don't actually know how long it was because we adults were chatting and having a good time, while the kids were seated and getting hungry (and cranky). It must have been close to half an hour, which is not fast food at all. Turns out the girl at the register was new and kept having to ask her co-workers for help. And they only had one prize for the kids' meals. That meant six of the same toy for six kids to fight over the rest of the vacation. Oodles of joy.

Agony #4 - Bowling. It was now 2pm and normally naptime but we had planned to go bowling after lunch (just didn't expect lunch to take so long). So we head to the only bowling alley in town. Chuckles had a coupon for $2 games between the hours of 1 and 5. Perfect! We should have known better. Turns out that the bowling alley doesn't actually open until 3pm.

At this point, my nephew has a complete rant on the utter lame-osity of this "vacation" destination. It was really funny because he was totally peeved and because it was exactly what I wanted to say! We headed back to the condo for naps.

Agony #5 - Hot Tubs. The condo reservation was made with the promise of a hot tub. Upon arrival, we could find no hot tub. Upon further inquiry, Chuckles was told the hot tub area was being renovated. Interesting. Upon further inquiry, the front-desk person suggested the local hot springs, for which the town is famous. Fine idea, but they wouldn't give us any vouchers for using the springs, we had to pay out of pocket. Begrudgingly, the front-desk guy offered to let our party use another building's hot tub. This one also had a pool. The two dads were sent to investigate, as we were becoming all too familiar with this town's utter lack of set hours. Turns out the lady at the other building was not at all happy that we were given permission to use their facilities and would only allow us access to a hot tub. No pool.

Agony #6 - The Springs. Still trying to salvage the day, my sister-in-law contacted the local hot springs, for which this town is famous. They have a pool, smaller hot pool, water slide, massage table, sauna, and an exercise gym. A little pricey but sounds like it's well worth it, right? Remember how I mentioned that summer is the "off-season" for this ski town? The hot springs were using the summer months to renovate. Everything at the hot springs was under construction, except for the main pool. Even with limited access, the pool was still full price. Also in town was a little league baseball tournament. We weren't going to mingle with the hordes of tween baseball players and their families.

Agony #7 - Dinner. Now, this was only an agony for me and a little bit for the Man. Still, it was agony. Ahead of time, Chuckles' wife and I had discussed meal options. We would eat out only one meal a day. Breakfast would always be at the condo, lunch would be sandwiches that could be taken for picnics and dinner was divided. I was in charge of dinner on Day #3. I brought most of the stuff with me to make Chicken Parmesan with spaghetti and garlic bread, which is on my short list of things I can make well. I haven't been myself lately, with all the panic attacks and such. I'm a little more air-headed than usual. So I had the chicken...but no parmesan cheese. I had the bread...but no garlic powder. And only one burner on the stove worked, which I didn't discover until I had been trying to boil the spaghetti water for 20 minutes and it was only lukewarm. Finally, I tearfully asked the Man to go to the store for me so at least the meal wouldn't be horrible. Dinner was about an hour later than we had planned. Oh, and I forgot about the garlic bread still being in the oven as I was getting my kids' plates filled. It was a little brown but still tasty.

Agony #8 - That awful bed!