tall dreams and hobbit legs

Ever notice how some days seem better as a memory than they actually were at the time? Today was that. I decided to take Tones on a walk to McDonalds for lunch--play in the Parc Ronald, pick up a Cars Happy Meal and use up those GC's I had. But instead of just going to the one that actually WAS walking distance...hey, why not go all the way to Gatineau?! It's only a 6 minute drive, and that one has the big playground inside it...sure, it's a longer walk, but we just hiked a trail in the Gatineau hills yesterday, surely we could hike to the Gatineau McDonalds. It's not too far from the bridge anyway, right?

When you're DRIVING.

How conveniently I forget to factor in that the road to Gatineau is typically driven at 90 km/h, and that much of the park path is in broad, shadeless sunlight. I don't really remember how we did it, though it must have been a combination of multiple "oh it's just around that corner"s combined with numerous "oh we can't turn back we're halfway there"s. We were a mass of sunscreen and sweat when we finally walked in, slightly over 2 hours later, only to discover the a/c was not working in the Parc Ronald, they were out of ice cream, and they weren't doing the Cars. That is not to say we didn't have a nice lunch, we just didn't eat dessert and I had to sit at a table just outside the Parc Ronald while Antonio played, though he was not as hyper as he normally is for obvious reasons.

The worst part of a longer-than-expected walking trip is knowing you have to do it all over again to get home. I felt so guilty making Antonio do that walk twice...we must have walked 5 miles total. That's a lot when you're not even 4.

However the trip back was a little less stressful. We stuck more to the park path rather than following the highway, and at Antonio's request we stopped to sit in the grass a few times. Then as we approached the most exposed stretch of the journey, God in His mercy shaded us with a raincloud. And though it was thundering by the time we reached the roads again, we didn't get rained on. Though in many ways I kind of wish we had been.

Don even got home before us. We had left before noon and returned by 5:30. Point taken. But in hindsight I'm glad I have the breezy walk down the forest path to keep me from remembering only the sweaty march down the gravel shoulder when I think of today. There's something very dreamy about being surrounded by trees. I still promised Antonio we'd take the car next time.