Escape

Today was one of the 5 days of the year that I wished I had an air conditioner. After a partially successful naptime, we, well mostly me, had to get out of the oven that is our house. Luckily, it is Wednesday, the day of our neighborhood farmers market.

There are many great things about our farmers market. It is 12 blocks from our house. It is right next to the water so there is a strong, cool breeze. It is next to a large expanse of shady grass that is perfect for playing soccer, chase or laying on to look at big, puffy thunderheads. The produce is fantastic. "Frenchie", the scone guy, is there. (He's from France) There's a stand that sells fresh bread. There's a stand that sells fresh tamales. It's next to the fire station and we can stop and say hi to Fireman Dave and Fireman Zach. When it's too hot to cook I can pick up a ripe avocado, an heirloom tomato (today it was a variety called chocolate) and some bread, and guess what we're having for dinner-

-gourmet sandwiches!

Best of all, when the kids say where are we going and I say the farmers market, they cheer. Or maybe it's just the shaved ice we always get. They like the rainbow flavor.

I hope that one of the things my kids will remember about their childhood is the small adventures we had. The days when Mommy said, "let's get out of the house," and we did something fun. Not something big, or expensive or extravagant, but small things like shaved ice and seeing who is selling the best peaches today. Things like saying hi to Frenchie the scone guy and knowing that his cookies are even better than his scones. I hope they will remember the time we spent together. Not so much what we did, but that we were together.