The Stranded

I got home to an empty house. Home is not the same without Armando and the kids. I tried to keep myself busy during the afternoon. I went to a friend’s baby sprinkle, then to the grocery store, I came home, took a shower and went to a friend’s house. We talked about everything and nothing…good old chit-chatting for the soul.

Today I video-chatted with my mom for 1hr, I broke my brother’s heart when I told him I didn’t like Dona Barbara, caught up over the phone with my friend that lives in France, went to the mall and got a mani and pedi. It was a different and fun kind of day.

I was brought up by my mom, grandmother and great-grandmother and one of the things I remember the most about my childhood were the summer trips my brother and I took with my grandma and my great-grandma. We would hop in a car and drive 8 hours to visit family in Maracaibo or Valera and it was so much fun to be with people we only saw once or twice a year and it was fun to be with our grandma and skip some of the rules my mom had like not drinking soda during the week.

We want our kids to have some of the experiences we had, allow them to spend time with their great-grandparents (how lucky are they to have 3!) and grand-parents, see our family that still lives in Venezuela, meet all their uncles and cousins, but above all to have  fun, enjoy their childhood and hopefully one day go to Venezuela and see the place where their parents grew up. I know Lucas and Matias will not remember this week, but our family will and they will probably hear the stories of this week when they grow up.  

Did I have fun yesterday and today? Yes, I did. However, I feel like the Rocket Man “I miss the earth so much. I miss my wife. It is lonely out in space”.

The Cafe

I decided to project my childhood memories on Lucas again. This time it was the Rainforest Cafe's turn. This was one of the places I clearly remember from my trips to Florida to visit my grandparents. I remembered how the smoke that doubled as mist smelled. I remembered the Gorilla Sandwich I would always order. I remembered having to wait longer than the usual restaurants I would go to, patiently waiting for the microphone to announce it was our "expedition's" turn. I remembered the animatronic gorillas and the elephants going wild when the rains would start. But most of all, I remembered how happy this place made me.

I wanted Lucas to experience all of this, so I gathered my family and insisted that this was something that we had to do on this trip. We drove to the Sawgrass mall and walked straight to the restaurant. Things looked exactly the same as I remembered them. The crocodile and the snake at the entrance and all the tropical fish in the big tanks brought back many memories. I talk to the lady in the entrance and tell her we have a party of 10 with no reservation. She replies that it will probably be a 45 minute wait. We are all really hungry but I convince everyone to wait. We are here for the experience. The group disperses around the mall, but I stay around eagerly waiting for the lady to announce our party. About 45 minutes later they finally call us and we go in.

As soon as we are walking into the restaurant one of the thunder storms starts. Lucas gets terrified and climbs on top of his grandmother. He does not seem to be enjoying this as I hoped he would. We try to show him the elephants and the gorillas but he is not very interested. We sit down to eat, my favorite sandwich is not in the menu, makes sense, the last time I was here was probably 15 years ago, but I order a burger. The food is not great, but it isn't bad either. What you are really paying for is the experience, an experience to which Lucas was indifferent. At least he ate all his food.

I'm not disappointed, Lucas likes what he likes and I like what I like. Sometimes I'm guilty of trying to live the moments that made me happiest when I was a kid through him. I just hope I can let him be as happy as my parents did for me, that is all I really want.