Auntie D and Uncle Doug just finished up their week long stay with us and I think that they had a pretty good time. During the first two days I had to work so I didn’t get to participate in any of the fun but they went to Adventure Island for mini-golf and to the movies to see Shrek 3. By the sounds of it mini-golf was the highlight since Alex got a hole in one on the 12th hole. (He just pulled out the scorecard again to show me the hole in one.)<\/p>\n
During the time they were here I think we managed to get in all the stuff that Alex talked about showing them before they arrived. Two of the big things he really wanted to take them to was lunch at Mr. Gatti’s and Soccer Tots. For those who don’t know Mr. Gatti’s is a pizza buffet restaurant with a video arcade\/midway. It has 4 lanes of indoor video bowling, a half dozen racing video games, skee ball, various shotting games, you name it. Basically the kind of place you can burn through 30 dollars in about 10 minutes. <\/p>\n
I don’t recall any places like this from my childhood, just arcades, which were always scary places to me. Whenever I went to the arcade I only ever had about a dollar so I had to be very strategic which games I played. If I picked a new game that turned out to be too difficult I would end up burning through my quarters too fast. I needed to scout out the games that were easier to maximize my game play time per quarter spent. Kung Foo fighting games, they were out. Games that cost 50 cents, forget it, way too rich for me. In the end I pretty much stuck to 1942<\/a> and Galaga<\/a> which to this day are about the only video games I can play. It also stressed me out when everyone would crowd around watching every move you made and critique your play. Let me put it this way, I was never the guy everyone was standing around watching set the high score, I was the guy who barely made it past level 2. (Now that I’ve drifted way off topic I remember one particularly embarrassing occasion on the game Paper Boy<\/a> where I made it about 30 seconds into the game before it was all over.)<\/p>\n Luckily Alex doesn’t seem to suffer any of the neurotic tendencies that seemed to plague me as a child and he jumps right into the games and gives them the what for. He played a one on one racing game against another kid who must have been about nine or ten and was competitive, even taking the lead at a couple points in the race. There’s one thing hasn’t changed from my childhood though, the games were over when the money ran out.<\/p>\n July 4th was lots of fun and was one of the few days that it didn’t rain. We went over to a friends place out in the country where we swam in the pool, ate hot dogs, drank beer, and when the sun went down it was a fireworks bonanza. I’ve never really lit off fireworks before so this was a first for me and I’m happy to report that we all made it back with all our fingers still attached. In all seriousness though I can’t believe some of the powerful fireworks they sell to pyromaniac amateurs. <\/p>\n On the last day we kept things pretty low key with just Alex’s soccer practice. Jen was commenting that this was the first time that any family has actually come and seen one of Alex’s soccer practices. He had a good practice and put on a show for us.<\/p>\n That wraps up the highlights from their visit. We all had a great time and I know we were sad to see them go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Auntie D and Uncle Doug just finished up their week long stay with us and I think that they had a pretty good time. During the first two days I had to work so I didn’t get to participate in … Continue reading