Weekend Fun

When the kids were in elementary school, we spent a lot of weekends going out to the Pacific Science center in Seattle or generally to other places. We did something or the other every weekend. They did not have any classes to attend on the weekend, no home works to worry about and in general we had more free time. By the time Sarath got into middle school, things started changing. He was part of the FLL robotics competition which took up most of his free time. He was also in scouts which meant there were campouts and activities over the weekends. So, us going out as a family to fun places reduced.

Now that Sanjay is in middle school and Sarath in high school, and both of them in scouts, and both kids having classes and other activities, we hardly get weekends where we can go out just for fun. Even on days when we don’t have much to do, the kids usually want to stay home and watch a movie. So, last weekend was one such weekend where we were able to squeeze some time to go out as a family. Sarath did have a lot of homework, but he also wanted to go to Olive Garden for dinner. Sanjay has been asking to go to mini golf for a while now. So, we decided to go play mini golf and then go to dinner.

It was really fun. It was a bit cold, but was not too bad. It’s California and we cannot complain too much about the cold 🙂 It was about 56F and not windy. So, not bad at all. Since it was a Sunday evening in November, the mini golf was not crowded – an added advantage. So, we had so much fun playing the 18 hole adventure. Sarath was a bit reluctant to come to mini golf at first, but once we got there he enjoyed a lot.

After the mini golf, we went to Olive Garden for dinner. This is one of the kids’ favorite restaurants. Who doesn’t like the bread sticks and the minestrone soup – especially on a cold evening. I had called ahead to check for wait times and I was told it would be about 30 min and they didn’t do any reservations. So, we went there bracing for the wait. But, luckily for us when we walked in, they seated us right away. If we had been there 5 min later, we would have had to wait. Thankful that we were lucky, we settled in.

As usual the food was excellent. We gorged on bread sticks and the soup. By the time we finished the main course, we were too full to even talk much. Since we went right after Sarath’s birthday, we wanted to surprise him with a cake and the happy birthday song from the Olive Garden waiters. He was not expecting it at all and was very happy 🙂 We ordered the Tiramisu cake. We love that one. Sarath wasn’t too excited about Tiramisu as it has some coffee in it and he didn’t like the taste much. He did eat part of the cake. Sanjay took one bite and said he did not like it and did not touch it again. Between Sarath, Somu & I, we finished the cake and headed home.

It was a wonderful evening and I am glad we went and had fun.