Pitstop Picnic

Pitstop Picnic, originally uploaded by afoos.

Since I'm an insomniac tonight (after sleeping 4 straight hours in the car, I'm going to regret this tomorrow when the kids wake up right as I'm drifting off to sleep), thought I'd start with a warm up pic to our trip: our first stop, picnic by a lake on the way there.

A few words about picnicing. We are a picnic family not only because it's cheaper let alone A LOT nicer to sit by a lake out in the nature rather than in a stuffy restaurant but also because I don't know if you know what it's like to try and wrestle with two kids under the age of 4 in a restaurant, but it's not fun. In fact, anytime someone even suggests restaurant with the kids, E and I always give each other a look of "they don't know what they are getting into" and "how can we politely decline?" I actually do like a restaurant once in awhile, contrary to E who hates going out to eat and is just happy with a tuna sandwich at home, or by a lake, but I know we'll get back to being able to join out of town guests at restaurant endeavors once the kids get older.

A couple years ago, we took my brother and sister to Galveston and packed a picnic lunch and their reaction was "gross". Then, when we were in Italy and I said we had a picnic lunch when we were out and about, double the reaction, "gross". Since I've lived 7 years now in France and in my new cultural surroundings, even in the most bourgeoise of families, the traditional picnic is nothing but the most common of happenings (remember, we spent a week in a villa in February with Etienne's family and didn't go out to eat once- eating out is a once a year thing), I am trying to remember in my US culture if picnics were seen as weird and I honestly can't remember. Do people picnic in the US or is it only reserved for certain social classes or subcultures? Whatever the case, wherever we go, we will BOOP (bring our own picnic), especially now that my mom got us this super cool, snazzy picnic basket/ice chest that comes with its own cutting board and salt and pepper shakers. I'm telling you, our picnics are not your traditional bologne and cheese or p,b and j sandwiches.

Come along with us the next time!

More Brittany pics to come...

Comments

[kim]

In my family we always picnicked on vacations, simply because we couldn't afford to be doing restaurants all over the place. Occasionally we'd get fast food as some sort of treat (I remember there used to be a 39 cent hamburger night at McDonalds and my mom would buy us each a hamburger and a huge fry to share and we would get so excited).

Although most of our picnicking experiences involved roadstops rather than lakes, alas. And I had this horrible fear of bees, and I remember running to the car numerous times to finish my lunch because I'd see a bee within a 30 foot radius. Heh.

But to answer the question, I think people picnic in the US.

[La Rêveuse]

We do, all the time, and it's not a weird thing at all (I think your bro and sis are weird!) Especially with food prices going up and the recession, you're going to see it a lot more, I think. We have cut our resto going to about a fourth of what we used to do, and that's not because of the baby.

[Anne]

I would come on a picnic with you anyday..especially in France.

We love nothing better than going to the supermarche buying somethings and finding a beautiful spot to eat.