Stawberry Farm Fail

One great thing about living the military life, is enjoying different activities and cultures at each new base.

We are currently down south, and the only thing I still enjoy is all the fresh fruit and vegetables. We generally go and hit up a local strawberry farm a few times each spring. A couple buckets, and my kids are off plowing through the field on a mission to get the biggest berry of all. Sarge and I follow behind, trying to keep too many from becoming a quick snack, taking some photos, and enjoying the sun.

However, this year was Strawberry Farm Fail. 

We'd been seeing ads in the base paper for a different farm, about an hour away, with "activities for the whole family". Bouncy things, slides, fresh ice cream, and of course the strawberries. So Saturday we decided to try it out.

Mistake number one, knowing that the high for the day was just below 90 - and still going.

Mistake number two, assuming we could leave early and beat the heat, or a possible crowd. Do strawberry fields even have crowds?

Half way there, Sarge was called into work. We turned around, he changed, and we all went to his shop where he said he'd only be 10 minutes.

No big deal right, it was still really early. After a few minutes with him inside and the kids and I hanging out in the car, he sent me a text saying we should go hang out at the park for half an hour or so.

Again no big deal, my kids freak over the park. After 45 minutes, Grace had hit her 2 injury quota while playing, Sky had gotten his shorts wet in the pond, and I had sweated off all trace of deodorant. Time to GO!

No word from Sarge. So we wondered over to the library. Ahh sweet sweet air conditioning. The library can be a great place to take my kids, individually. Grace is 2, and loud. So she goes strait into the little kid room and the itty bitty computers that she is obsessed with. Sky however is 10, and 2 minutes in the kid room has him rolling his eyes and muttering how lame everything is. After 20 minutes of hearing the error noise from the computer, and how lame a stuffed tiger was - I bribed silence from Grace with some gummy snacks, and we went looking for something for Sky. He quickly picked up a new book and we hustled to the check out desk. Still no word from Sarge.

I needed some new summer makeup, and a major dose of caffeine, so we went to the BX next. Grace made it 10 steps towards the entrance, before dropping the remainder of her gummies in the parking lot and laying down in outrage when I wouldn't let her put them in her mouth. My attempt at good parenting got me about 10 indignant looks from random people as my toddler lay on the sidewalk wailing. Oh well. I quickly grabbed the makeup, some sugar for the kids, and the biggest cherry coke I could find.

Back to the car, back to Sarge's shop, and the kids munched on candy while I blissed out with my soda for another half hour before he came out.

Mistake number three, lunch. We tried a new wing place everyone had been raving about. We can be particular about our wings, and these were simply smothered in various sauces. Not the best. One drink spill later and some full bellies and we were out the door.

Finally off to the the strawberry farm. The directions weren't the best, and there was no sign pointing the way. So we got a little lost along the way. Thank goodness for google and good cell reception.

And when we arrived - utter disappointment! The field was overgrown with weeds, many of the berries were either rotten or unripe, and the "fun for the whole family" looked as if it would require a tetanus shot. We ended up paying for a couple of buckets, and filled them as fast as we could because it was now midday and a million and one degrees.

Lesson learned, sometime the simple things should just stay simple.