Bonfante

Well, I have all of these stories rolling around in my head and I feel the need to share the love. I love to write..so, this is a good outlet for me. I am not sure why embarrassing things seem to happen to me a lot, but they do. I am writing this story for one friend, in particular, my dear friend, Kimmy. She was there to console me after my humiliating display in front of a large crowd of people! Our two families took the kids one day to Bonfante (now called Gilroy Gardens). I just want to interject here that I love this place and is the best for an outing with the kiddos! Speaking of Gilroy, did you know it was the garlic capital of the world? Even in San Jose you can smell the garlic in the summer morning air and it smells delicious. Mmmm…garlic. Oh, where was I? Yes, Bonfante.

So, we are skipping along having a great day in the sunshine. We come to the pond with the swan paddle boats. The kids shout, yeah let’s do this! We get in line and it ends up that I won’t have a partner. I am fine with that. Brian gets in with Dylan and they happily paddle off. My boat floats up and the attendant helps me down into the boat. As I had been talking and not paying attention, I did not realize that all the paddle boats were two seaters. For some reason, I thought that since I was by myself they had given me a single person paddle boat. I get in and get situated and I am immediately confused. My feet could not reach the pedals?! So, I keep trying to stretch my legs to get them to reach. I can’t be this short, right?? I finally yell out to the attendant, “Hey, um…my feet don’t reach the pedals. Can you help me out?” She looks down at me and says, “Ma’am, you are supposed to sit on one side of the boat to pedal. I realize with horror that I am straddling the paddle boat!! I basically looked like I was in labor and about to give birth to a giant swan paddle boat baby. The best part were the long lines of people looking down at me watching this whole thing…like I am a spectacle in a zoo. Really? Did that just happen? I had two choices…I could leap out of the boat and run and hide or I could muster up what dignity I had left and finish that ride. I chose the latter. I slunk down onto one side of the boat and pedaled away…that was a long lap around the pond.

I guess the moral of the story is when you make a fool of yourself in front of a large crowd—soldier on! To have friends that love you and to laugh with is priceless. I will never look at paddle boats the same way again, but I will always think of Kimmy when I do. And that made the whole thing worth it.