The list started a few months ago. He’d casually point to a restaurant and say, “Hmm! Maybe we should go there during summer break.” (The “for chicken strips and French fries” was unspoken, but understood.) Then he’d remember someplace like Epicenter, and add that “we should” to the list, which rapidly took on a life of its own.
Finally, I got a piece of paper and gave it to him, telling him to write down all the things we “hmm maybe should” do on summer break.
He did.
It’s a really long list.
To be fair, several items on his list are restaurants: Little Caesar’s, Black Bear Diner, Burger King, SuperBurger, to name a few — and there’s a fair list of stores, too: Target, Best Buy, GameStop, etc. (There’s a bunch of movies, as well, but they are ones that we own or have seen, so I’m not 100 percent sure what earned them a spot on the list.) The rest of the list is actually kind of cool.
One of the first things that he wanted to add to his list was the library. We go once a week to the Windsor Library, and we got to talking about how there are other libraries connected to the system. We got a list from the library, and now we are planning our outings based on which library we are planning to visit each week.
A recent trip on the SMART train reminded me that the Rohnert Park library is just a hop, skip and a jump away from their train station, so one fine day we may just scoot down on the train, visit the library, and maybe even sneak in a visit to the Black Bear Diner before catching the train back home.
Another interesting list item was “history museums.” The Pacific Coast Air Museum by the Sonoma County Airport is a long favorite, so that’s a must-do; the Sonoma County Museum has an interesting exhibit on Lost Santa Rosa, so I want to see that; and the Healdsburg Museum has an exhibit on Healdsburg’s Architectural Heritage, which sounds super interesting, too.
Thomas may or may not be as intrigued by the second and third museums as I am, but I know how to play my cards: the Sonoma County Museum happens to be across from the Santa Rosa Plaza Mall, which happens to have a food court, which happens to have a Burger King.
And, if we tie the Healdsburg Library visit in with the Healdsburg Museum, we’ve got a nice little walk in, too. I’m still doing some research to see what other local museums have to offer, so that we can go to as many of those as we can
Train Town made the list, as it has in years past; this year we’ll probably go with the littlest cousins when they are here for a two-week visit at the end of May and first part of June. (The three boys are now one, four, and six, so that will be a fun trip.!)
We’ll try to soak up as much time with them as we can, because at the end of summer they are moving from far-away Las Vegas to farther-away Pittsburgh.
Trying to plan in all the fun stuff is exciting, but kind of stressing me out, too. We haven’t finished this school year yet – three weeks to go, but who’s counting? – and then there’s a week off, and then summer school is four days a week for five weeks, and then there’s a couple of weeks, and then I’m gone for a week for my union conference, and then there’s a few days and school starts up again.
Gah! It’s not even June and my summer is full and gone.
Okay. Deep breath.
The list is an excellent starting point to plan fun things and outings, but there will also be days where we just want to stay home and veg out, watching movies and eating something super easy, like — I don’t know — Little Caesar’s pizza. Ohhh! Once again, I have to bow to his superior vision.
Juliana LeRoy wears many hats, including wife, mother, paraeducator and writer. She can be spotted around Windsor gathering material, or reached at ml****@so***.net.
