I am shameless too, especially towards the end of Spring break when I would waltz in with my crazy four kids and the employee at the door would kindly greet me. I'd smile and make a beeline to the playarea, not bothering to order anything. After sitting down collecting myself at one of the sticky tables, I'd start to feel a little guilt about how happy my kids (and I were) and buy a smoothie or coffee.
Trust me, McDonald's has gotten a lot of our money over the years and I feel I've already paid my dues for the luxury of using the playarea. Really, as I sat down and observed all the other parents in the room, dealing with sticky faces, zoning out on their phone or half-heartedly scanning the mass of children trying to squeeze into one of the life sized hamster tubes suspended above us, I felt connected to them in a special way.
We were all trying to survive, to maintain some semblance of our sanity on this dreary Spring break day. We were all well aware of the health risks we were taking but decided that an hour of blissful play out of our home was worth contracting a rare virus.
I observed a pretty Put Together Mom in business attire...actually there were two of them sitting opposite ends of the room. One was trying to force feed her large baby french fries while her two other young children came back occasionally to the table and complained about an assault that occurred in one of the tubes.
The other mom was trying to calm down a whining little girl who wanted an ice cream cone instead of a hamburger. After threatening leaving this magical paradise, the little girl accepted her fate and ran off to disappear into the plastic jungle.
Both Moms looked worn. We all understood each other, although based on their attire, they came from work or somewhere professional, so this was perhaps even more of a contrast to where they've been all day. Or maybe they were just classier than me.
Who know, but nonetheless, I felt like the three of us could have joined a table and have had a really nice adult conversation. Although I was content to sit by myself, I felt a longing to connect with the other moms in the room, another adult who understood.
I had the thought, "Did any of these adults in this room right now aspire to be sitting here someday when they thought about their future when they were little?"
I'm sure most of them thought about having kids, but when you think about having kids, the whole "day- in- and- day- out" experience of "kid life" and "kid places" is absent from your mind. You have no idea what this section of society is all about-or really that it even exists-until you find yourself in this season of life.
We did do other things during Spring Break besides playLands, but they were a comforting available option in the back of my mind in case we needed to kill a few hours.
HERE is a quick recap:
Monday we took a family trip to Tillamook.
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| Cape Meares Lighthouse |
The almost 2 hour drive was a great lesson for the kids-especially Evie-to sit still and look out the window. We counted waterfalls on the side of the road, and we almost ran out of gas.
It rained a bit but it wasn't enough to not get out of the van when we got to Cape Meares and walk to the end of the lighthouse to look for whales. The overlook was just stunning. Even the kids were totally captivated by the powerful, churning waves and the sounds of the seabirds.
James exclaimed, "Wow, the waves a so Powerful Mom!" He was truly amazed by it all.
We did see a whale tail and a spout way out in the ocean. The kids were so excited. They told all the people we passed on the trail heading back to our car. However, we had to remind them of what they actually witnessed, as their story got progressively more exciting and elaborate with every person they told it to.
On our way out back to our car, we observed a 300 year old Octopus tree.
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| Octopus tree: No trunk. Just a bunch of arms. |
Next, was the Tillamook Cheese Factory. It was so crowded but I expected it to be because if you're going to take a day off from the McDonald's playland, then you're going to the cheese factory, right?!
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| They will never see cheese the same way again |
The kids found the conveyor belt of cheese fascinating. We all left with a greater appreciation for the process of cheese making, and we were sure glad that Tillamook also made ice cream.
Tuesday: A sunny day and the entire population of Spring Breakers in Oregon decided to go to the zoo.
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| We had to kill an hour exploring the Rose Garden because zoo parking was completely FULL . |
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| But that hour was fun. We hiked and kids played in the roots of this huge tree we saw along the trail. |
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| Success! When we finally did make it into the zoo, we had fun despite all the animals that were absent and shut down exhibits due to the remodeling.....😧 |
Wednesday: We attempted to visit the Wooden Shoe Tulip festival with some friends.
I'll give you a few words to sum that whole experience up: Rain, mud, no tulips and throw up.
😃
I probably should have just stuck with the PlayLand.
