While not commenting on the sorry state of affairs in this world, I’m usually either working or at home relaxing. The past two Saturdays were exceptions to the relaxation rule, as I ventured out into North Carolina’s Triangle region for a little fun and excitement. This post is the tale of two Saturdays.
The Saturday before last (May 20th) my company sponsored an event at the local Putt Putt called Family Fun Day. And boy, was it ever fun. The best part was the value. We got to do anything at Putt-Putt — miniature golf, rides, go carts — all day long for one low price. Hope wanted to take advantage of this opportunity by trying something she’s never tried before — climbing the rock wall. Needless to say, she didn’t get too far. That’s kind of good, since she would have a lot farther to fall.
Miniature golf is my favorite outdoor activity. There have been entire summers where I attempted to escape the burdens of the real world by playing a game that little kids can get into. It’s also kind of fun on a spazzy intellectual level, you know, with all the geometry and angles and vectors and stuff. This, combined with the extremely competitive nature of any game that Hope and I are involved in, led to a number of contentious moments. However, when all was said-and-done, I took three of the five games we played (the other two resulted in ties). However, she made it up when it came time to hit the game room, winning at both air hockey (normally my strength) and Mortal Kombat.
We decided to take a break from mini-golf for awhile and visit the Animal Planet Expo being held in nearby Cary. We arrived toward the end of events, so we didn’t get to see dogs catching frisbees and jumping through flaming hoops. It was relaxing and a good opportunity to take pictures.
Yesterday (May 27th) we went to the JC Raulston Arboretum at North Carolina State University. This was the most acceptable compromise possible. Hope wanted to go the mountains or to a major theme park, which is her idea of what people doing on Memorial Day weekend. I wanted to stay home and play games. This is my idea of what people do after a tough week of work. Two competing visions, but we met in the middle. I secretly didn’t even want to go to the Arboretum. But I guess Hope will find that out when she reads this blog.
My favorite part of the Arboretum visit was the goldfish pond/waterfall area. It was shaded, which really helped out on a sunny Carolina summer day. In addition to the goldfish that would attack your fingers whenever they were dangled into the water, this area had a curious leaf picture on the floor. It seemed very familiar, like just seeing it made me want to down every bag of Fritos that I saw. Anyway, there are a lot of plants at the Arboretum — many native to other, more exotic parts of the world. But none with leaves as great as these were found at the Arboretum.
My other favorite site was the occasional hanging fish ornaments that were held together with those tie strips that you use to bundle packages and electrical cords. That was my kind of construction project. All of them were nicely done, except for the puffer fish, which didn’t really look like it was done. It was hanging in the otherwise exquisite rose garden, which presented a scary contrast to the beauty and elegance normally associated with roses.
The Arboretum was kind of fun. Again, it was definitely a good picture taking opportunity. Hope’s taking a photography class at Wake Technical Community College, and even after a couple of classes, she’s getting really good at taking pictures. I’ve often encouraged her to photo-blog to show off her photographic visions, but that hasn’t happened as of yet. Her best photograph was of a man she caught sharing a tender moment with a sad willow tree. You could just feel the emotion conveyed as each found out that their tree-human lovechild was just killed by a crazed lumberjack.
We ended the day by catching a film at the local $1.50 movie theater. We passed up the opportunity to fight the crowds to watch DaVinci Code at the new movie theaters, saved a bundle and spent a little bit more at the snack bar. After a really tough decision, we chose to see V for Vendetta. But that’s a topic of discussion for a more serious post, I guess.
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