Flower in the ‘Domes’

This was the last day of the Graf Kids now annual school break to visit grandparents in Milwaukee. Today we visited two places, the Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservatory (The Domes) suggested by my wife, Grandma Pat, and Chucky Cheese, suggested by my three grandchildren. Anyone who knows me or reads this post regularly knows what one I enjoyed, and one that I bore and survived.

With talk of a rain forest, unique plant life and other exotic things we had the grandchildren primed to enjoy the botanical gardens. The Domes did not disappoint. Add a model railroad display and elaborate Lego constructions in one of the domes, and the children enjoyed this visit. Of the three domes I think the one we most enjoyed was the dome with the rain forest. There was something in there for everyone, beautiful orchids growing everywhere for my wife, plants like cacao trees and plants similar to ones that I grow in the house that I could recognize, and fun plants like a banana tree for the kids to enjoy. We all had something to learn, like how the banana trees are no longer self-planting and completely dependent on humans to plant their seeds for new trees.

We went from the beauty and serenity of the domes to the mechanical noise of Chucky Cheese. Nowadays each game or machine still only costs a quarter to play, but no longer accepts tokens or money. Each child gets a plastic card with so many plays on it. Just sliding the card makes it easier for children to spend more money in the evasive chase for more tickets to redeem prizes. It is good training for using credit cards in the future for the children are spending money they do not have but only have the limit of money parents or grandparents put on the card. For my part I sat at the table waiting for pizza, enjoying the pizza and waiting for cards to run out of plays. I tried a little silent meditation but it was much too noisy.

In both places I noticed there were lots of persons with grandchildren. I guess some of the area schools had no school today so while parents worked children stayed, like mine, with grandparents.

In a sense the domes and Chucky Cheese, where kids come to play, present a real contrast of choices kids, parents and grandparents make each day. We may choose the natural word of flowers, trees and plants, or the human-made world of machines, pizza and noise. I guess we might need some of both, but for this old ‘pilgrim’ the choice is easy.

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