Our Pirate Summer
So here lately OTR has been trying to embrace the “little by little, one travels far” mindset. This mindset on paper looks great, sounds logical and seems like a good way to relax a bit about life in general. At least that was my intention when I chose that quote to be the positive voice in my head. But in reality, I have really been more focused on survival this summer. Some days survival is a minute by minute affair. Other times it includes wondering why and wanting to escape the harsh reality of it all.
Now escape never lives long and isn’t healthy so instead of escape parse I thought maybe pretending to be someone else might help. Now at least with my life lessons, we often try something only to realize that somewhere along the line your original intent was missed. But when you stand up and take a good around you are your glad your there. Your in someplace you never knew existed so how could you know that’s where you end up.
Most of our adventures are very much like this. And this one is no different.
So continues OTR and our path of finding people/places and things that we never knew were out there.
Uncertain Future
One could suppose with any illness, long or short term, comes the realization that at some point one day we will no longer be here. Now for parents with kids who are medically “fun” or challenged, or complicated, as all 7 of ours are, it is a huge source of stress because nothing is guaranteed. Who will go first? How will they survive? How will you survive? Its all overwhelming at times if you dwell too long on the future. Your supposed to plan and be happy but rarely is the future a happy thought at OTR. That’s what the travel talk/planning/dreaming is for…….Hope.
Admittedly travel is interesting and sometimes complicated for us. But traveling, meeting new people and finding adventure even a small, tiny, close to home adventure has kept us hoping for the future. Making memories that will live on for many, many years to come. Memories that can never be taken away.
ARRRR Matey
So with all this in mind and trying to give the kids as much of the world as we possibly can. One of the constants in our daily life is the love of dance and stage combat. Swords of all kinds are collected at dinner and the line from Brave never more appropriate “no weapons at the table”. There are skits and practices done on the deck, some are easy practices and some are more challenging but through it all they work together.
The kids have taken stage combat classes and while no longer offered now the lessons learned in that class were invaluable. We were lucky to have access to such classes.
Now in my mind there is no group more theatrical than pirates as a whole. Obviously not modern day pirates but the Jack Sparrows/Will Turners of old. So I went on a mission to find as many pirate themed festivals/close to the East Coast of the US as I could. My old friend, the Universe, must have heard my plea for something to hang onto because the very same day I decided this I was sent a FB invite to the Rock Hall Pirates and Wenches Festival in just a few weeks !!! Its always nice to know she’s looking out for us !
So began the planning. I am admittedly a hopeless over achiever in the costume/theme department. I love, love, love planning themed events/parties/holidays. This is no secret in how overboard I can go sometimes. I believe in being as authentic as possible at all times. Plus it gives us something to look forward to and remind us that life should be fun.
Rock Hall here we come
So costumes were prepared, schedules set and logistics hammered out. Oh did I mention it was Rainbow Fox’s birthday weekend? All the more better to have an awesome day of it.
It was around a 90 min drive, which is relatively short for where we live. Now I must admit we were a group of 9 people with a wagon and a wheelchair. All dressed in costume……we must have been a sight.
We missed the treasure hunt {booo} and went from booth to booth checking out all the booty after watching a very funny pirate street performer. Pocket watches, Journal, hats, necklaces, and all things leather were all very popular with the kids. The leather workers were so kind, adjusting rings to fit their tiny fingers. We got pirate themed comic books, romance novels both author signed. A characture that will be framed in my room soon so I can never forget our day at our first pirate festival.
Next we hit the food trucks for lunch. It was very humid and our group was too large to taste any of the local restaurants. We have food allergies and find eating at places extremely frustrating but we found some yummy pulled pork and corn on the cob. On this day it was so hot we decided to have fruit smoothies. Then we lost Alex. She had something that didn’t agree with her and her blood sugar dropped. She incidentally spent the rest of the day in the wheelchair unable to walk.
The Kids Encampment
It was oddly enough the fact that Alex was not feeling well that spurred us to seek shelter from the sun in the kids area. It was located in a very shady spot and had games, bouncy house and entertainment along with an encampment with a blacksmith and a firing cannon.
As we entered we could hear voices and a skit like program going on. We would later learn the voices were coming from the Valhalla’s Pirates. The boys ran ahead and pushed their way to the front to see the performers. We had unfortunately missed most of the skit but what we caught of the tail end was really entertaining. I’ve never seen a kid so amazed by the swords and stag before . His has a wooden for I don’t really believe in weaponizing the people I live with so wooden was my compromise.
He was so entranced that after the show he wouldn’t leave the ropes, just staring at it all in wonder. He was just fascinated by the stunning stage and fantastic props.
When I finally caught up to him. I was fiddling with my camera. He was talking to a pirate and ended up on stage sparring with them. His delight was radiating from his soul. As we watched him with pride and admiration. I could only think of how nice these pirates were to indulge in a child’s fantasy with such enthusiasm. In all the places we’ve taken the kids not one person, let alone an entire group of people have ever given them the time of day or treated them with such kindness and consideration.
We have since learned a lot about our new pirate friends and look forward to many new adventures with them. Little did we know jut how amazing this group was and how they would forever change our lives and become very important to us.
As a parent of children who’s future is uncertain. This day is hopefully the start of a very bright and happy future.
