Monday, January 08, 2007

Keep an Open Mind, Even for a Boat Show

I love my husband. Really, I think I'm pretty lucky to have him. But sometimes I get a little irritated over his inability or lack of motivation to plan an activity for himself, or the family that doesn't involve a video game. I knew this about him when I married him, so it's a little late to complain now... so when he came home from work on Friday with a plan, I should never have stuck my nose up at his idea.

He "won" tickets to a boat show. He was excited to share the news that not only was he a winner, but gosh darn it, he was excited to take his family to the boat show this weekend in downtown Cincinnati.
"Great, the baby and I will stay home while you take the older two" was my initial reply.
"Well, you are always complaining that I never plan anything, and when I do, you aren't interested".
So I sucked it up and put on a semi happy face (after spending the evening prior complaining to my friends about how lame my hubby is- a boat show, we don't even own a boat, and we never will).

We left our house this morning (after a brief experience of the tickets missing only to be found in the garbage, but really that's another story in itself) with tears about coats in the car and an all over dismal mood from the troops picking up on mom's negative attitude about boat shows.
We arrive downtown and are blessed immediately by a parking spot right in front of the convention center, we don't even have to walk a block, let alone stick a nickle in a meter since it's Sunday. I was really going to have a hard time paying even $5 for parking.

Taking up about four parking spaces outside the convention center was a giant houseboat, that was open for tours. The girls and I took a leisurely tour of the boat, while Michael waited with the stroller down below. The girls found the boat interesting which I just didn't believe since it seemed so abstract... how could they really picture this as a boat at all since it's sitting in the street on wheels? But they were entertained to see a hot tub on the boat without water, and I'm not sure why. They also enjoyed seeing the street so far below from the top deck, and waving to Daddy and Penelope waiting patiently for our return.

Inside the convention center we were greeted by two greyhound dogs from the greyhound rescue, which the girls loved. The dogs were friendly, they licked and sniffed the kids and they seemed to know we were the type of people that let the dogs rule the house-which is ironic to think that at this very moment our dogs were at our house pooping and peeing all over the place while fighting over a bag of diapers that were waiting a walk to the outside trash can. Hmm, go figure.

Anyway, the boat show continued to get better and better. I pick up a zillion brochures on local vacation spots. So many towns had their welcome center's set up a booth in effort to get people down to their small town. So we collected a bag full of locations and thought it would be fun to randomly pull out a location from the bag for a quick weekend get away. Next weekend we are planning to spend a day down at Mammoth caves. I'm certain the girls will enjoy another new adventure. So all was not lost on a trip to the boat show. It was filled with plenty of entertainment for the girls, not to mention the truck sized fish tank where we watched a fishing demo from a local expert.

So who would have thought a boat show would be worth our time? It was a fun day out of the house to a place I would never have gone in a million years. And hopefully the boat show will lead to more adventures in the future. I'll let you know. But I will warn you, if you are planning to go next weekend, I'm not sure I can recommend spending the $10 admission per person (kids are free) but if you get free tickets, by all means, GO!

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