My All Day Excursion

I am married to the Mastermind of Surprises, the Ultimate Planner of Random Fun Days, the Man With the Ideas ....you get the idea! About a month ago an email showed up in my inbox saying:

Dear Bethany

We are pleased to inform you that we have a delightful activity booked for your enjoyment on the tenth of September. Please be sure to mark your calendar. Also, if you should have any young children we request that you make arrangements for someone to care for them as this is an adults only experience. We look forward to seeing you in September.

Confession - I have blonde moments at times. (Ahem!) Ok, more times than I care to admit. But, seriously, I get so many ridiculous emails saying "Aunt So-and-So died and left you thousands of dollars...." and all this kind of nonsense and I get sick of it! So I did what I do with those emails, I gave it a cursory glance and deleted it. Dumb thing!

Later, Chris made some comment about the email I received. I can't remember exactly what he said, but it suddenly dawned on me that the email I had deleted was from him!! The next day this showed up in my inbox:

We have not received a reply concerning your all expenses paid activity on the above mentioned date. Please respond as soon as possible so we can reserve your spot on this unique opportunity. Failure to respond with enthusiasm could result in the cancellation of your confirmed reservation.

Sincerely, The Reservation Desk

Oh, what a guy! :) I returned a properly sophisticated reply of enthusiastic acceptance and went on to receive the details. Our electric co-op offers a yearly, expenses paid tour of the Cardinal Electric Plant for it's members. Chris has wanted to take advantage of it, so this year he reserved two spots for the tour, which was today!

We departed from our house at 7:15 a.m. (yes, I got up at an unearthly hour to pack lunches, drug the first grader out of bed to comb her hair....) It's times like these when it's well worth living in Grandma's yard! She gladly took over for the day and away we went to meet our bus in Cambridge!

There were about 40 of us on the bus pictured above, and we were privileged to have the gentlemen striding along in the photo as our driver. I wish I had a better picture, he was a "Dandy", as we would say! :) We rode the bus for about an hour, enjoying each other's company and snippets of conversation all around us along the way.

Once through security at the Electric Plant, we all grabbed our gear and looked more or less like the lady pictured second from top for the rest of the day =P (I should have a picture of the lady's hair after the hard hat was removed, but none are available) We split up into groups of 8 and proceeded with our guided tour of the place.

Amazing. Unbelievable. Fantastic! Truth be told, I'm not much into Electric Plants. The statistics and facts flew mostly in one ear and out the other to be honest. It was one of those days when I tried to fathom what it would be like to be a man. To stand there listening to the guide's lingo and actually make perfect sense of it all. And, not only that, have the understanding to form knowledgeable, coherant questions to ask the man! All around me were men who nodded at the answers and promptly tucked information away to bring forth later in the bus to discuss with their seatmates in animated tones. Men are amazing! And, granted, not all women are like me...

I enjoyed the tour. The sheer enormity of the equipment and complexity of the system was enough to amaze and impress whether you understood everything or not! The weather was georgous and the company delightful. It was a fun day.

After the tour, we gathered back under the tent for our choice of snacks and drink while we waited for the rest of our group. Then, it was back on the bus and off to Mehlman's Cafeteria for lunch! After we were all properly filled, (and entertained by waiters and so forth) we climbed aboard the bus once more and enjoyed our ride back to Cambridge.

There, we left the group behind and stopped here and there and ended sitting at the park for the last long while discussing things of interest. Then it was time to head back home and hug little people and talk and hear about each other's days and dole out tylenol and some holding to the little girl who's not feeling good...... Welcome Home!

So, there was my day. I love being married to This Man!