In Pursuit of Shiny-Happy.

The promise was an afternoon together at the MOHAI. Oliver wanted to show Malcolm some secret crystals he’d recently discovered on a preschool field trip, he declared on Monday. Certainly the Museum of History and Industry is rife with rare and treasured shiny objects, right? Or not, but I was game on this cloudy afternoon with nothing else to do besides sit on the back porch, freezing, staring into the grey. I’m still really angry with that groundhog…

So, as it turns out, what ensued was “all my fault,” according to the boys. Oliver accused me of wastin’ time talkin’ to the other first grade moms for too many hours (actually minutes, yes, but still). We did the opposite of race home, and arrived back at the house exactly one hour before the museum was to close. We hopped into the car with shocking swiftness, two stuffed bunnies and a lunch box of snacks stuffed between carseats for the long, two mile drive to South Lake Union. (Malcolm insisted on the road snacks.) And alas, those small boys were right: traffic was as ominous as the skies, and sure as can be, we arrived 15 minutes shy of closing time.

“Lemonade time, small men!” I declared, refusing to throw in the towel. And so, as luck would have it, we bumped into another boy at the little pond who had in his possession every small boy’s dream: a remote controlled battleship. On top of that, he was a kind and generous child who immediately offered to share. (No, I’m not kidding. These kids do exist.) The lemons were forgotten, and all we could do was drink in the sweet honey of a beautiful afternoon spent captaining a boat and exploring the lakeside docks. It was only an hour or so, but the change in scenery is good for a mama’s soul, and I’m grateful for the botched mission. Those crystals, they can wait.