I didn't expect there to be NO children there!
I walked in to the rec center a bit late, and the receptionist glanced at me and asked if I was really there for Cabin Fever. Apparently since no one had yet showed up to play, the aerobics room wasn't even set up.
She told me she'd be more than happy to set it up if we wanted to play, but the whole reason we go there is for Grace to play with other children. If there are no children, there isn't really a point to staying.
Bummer.
Today was Parent-Teacher Conferences for most of the schools. The elementary schools had a half day, the junior high schools had no school at all, and I think the high schools had a regular school day. That would be why none of the parents showed up today; anyone who had older children wouldn't have wanted to bring them to a playgroup where the kids would just have to sit and watch the little ones play.
This school district has more days OFF than they have in school, I'm telling you. It seems that the kids have at least one day a week that they either have early dismissal or no school at all. Their vacations are very long as well; Christmas vacation for them started mid-December and lasted for almost three weeks! Spring break starts on Monday, yet with parent-teacher conferences, for some kids spring break started today. I don't know how they get in the requisite 180 days a year.
I'm not terribly fond of this school district anyhow. I'm glad we're going to be elsewhere when Grace starts school.
So instead of Cabin Fever, we went down to the bakery to get lunch a little early. It was insanely packed in there today, which really surprised me. A few weeks ago it had been really busy in there, but that was when the other bakery was temporarily closed for renovations. Now the other bakery is open, so it shouldn't have been quite so busy. Oh well.
Grace was a huge hit in the bakery, of course. At least ten people commented on either her sunglasses or her rainbow-striped tights, and Grace, being Grace, was her normal friendly self. When it's not quite so busy in the bakery, Grace will greet everyone who comes in with a wave and a bright "HI!"
A grandmother pushing a baby stroller came in with her two daughters (one of whom was the mother of the baby boy), so of course we had to say hi to the baby. He was so cute!! He had huge hazel eyes that were just gorgeous.
After lunch Grace and I walked around downtown and the marina, soaking up the sun. Can you believe it was 65� today?? It was incredibly gorgeous!!
As we walked around, we ran into the grandma with the baby twice more. I just tried to ignore them to a degree, so they didn't think I was stalking them or anything.
A passing stranger took this photo of us. I thought that was very kind of her.
After we got our sunshine for the day, we headed down to the base. I shot this photo along the way:
My sister has already commented that I will miss those views when I move to Rhode Island, which is for sure. When you grow up on the East Coast, the only mountains you see are the Appalachians. They can't even begin to compare with the mountains here out west! The Appalachians, in comparison, are just sort of large hills.
I stopped in the NEX first to see if they had a digital kitchen scale, but of course I had to check out the clothes section to see if there was anything cool for Grace. Surprisingly enough, there again was the grandmother with the baby and her two daughters!! So I said to them, "I'm not stalking you, really I'm not!!"
Then it was off to the commissary to pick up a few food items, and there they were again!! I could not shake this family!
Maybe they were stalking me, I don't know.
But it was weird. I kept coming around an aisle, and boom! There they were.
Finally I went through the express lane, and when I was picking up the bags to carry them to the car (we usually have baggers that carry your groceries to the car, but I didn't need help this time), the same family was outside waiting for Grandma to finish her transaction! I laughed and told them I was going home, for real, so we wouldn't be bumping into each other anymore.
But man, was that WEIRD.