Victory Day in RI gives us a bonus day off and being the only state in the country since 1975 to observe the holiday makes it extra special to us Rhode Islanders. My daughter wanted to take her kids and a friend to an amusement park in Connecticut and invited me to join them for the day. Lake Compounce happens to be the oldest amusement park in the country and has added an amazing water park. Watching three pre-teen boys run around a park and trying to keep eyes on them throughout a water park is close to impossible but I was up for the challenge. The kids had the time of their lives as my daughter and I carried bags, waited on benches and shlepped their belongings from ride to ride. Seeing their excitement and occasional terror from the rides was priceless. It took me back to the days my friend and I would spent at Rocky Point when we were about the same age. She and I would ride every ride, fearless, thrill seekers until we had lapped that park three times over and finally had to return to our meeting point for a ride home. I could see on the kids faces that they felt the same sense of freedom as they explored the park, running back to my daughter and I occasionally to check in before running off to the next ride. Leaving the park the boys were filled with stories of their favorite rides as well as the most terrifying. We went to dinner, exhausted, hungry, dusty and dirty but content with the day and wishing we could transport ourselves home. The restaurant was packed, wait staff a bit overwhelmed but trying hard to keep up with the crowd. Our waitress brought a few drinks to our table with promises of returning with the rest. After tasting my drink I knew it was not the unsweetened ice tea I had ordered. It was sweet and tasted a bit like raspberry, my daughter and each of the three boys took a sip to try to identify the taste, all determining it was too sweet but a few of us gave it a second sip to further investigate. When the waitress came back, I told her it was not my beverage and she quickly put it back on her tray, now packed with drinks for our table and the table next to us. She passed out the boys lemonades then to our horror passed out drinks to the table next to us.....yup! She placed two sweetened iced teas down for the two women at the table next, one of which was the drink our table had ALL tasted. The drink was at least a half an inch lower than the rest but neither the women or the waitress noticed. Everyone at my table sat wide eyed looking into each others eyes trying not to react as my daughter said, "no one say a word". They say what you don't know won't hurt you, I suppose that's true... but ugh, it's still gross! The boys all said it was the greatest day ever! How lucky am I that I was able to be a part of all that fun? Once home, my old body collapsed into bed feeling every ache and pain from walking on the pavement all day and I was asleep within minutes. I had left the house at 9am and didn't return until almost 10pm...I'd say every minute of that holiday was appreciated, enjoyed and every ounce of fun extracted.
😳😘❤️T
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