Just call me Mav...

The plan was to drive J to the hospital this morning to see a patient, then the girls would run some errands at Canadian Tire, Old Navy and the grocery store and swing by to pick him up on the way home for lunch. Sounded okay, and things were ticking along as scheduled...until mom decided to go rogue. Now that doesn't happen very often, so while what you're about to read may not seem like fodder for the next big action movie of the summer...well, it sure does to me.

Program GPS for Canadian Tire - check! T minus 11 minutes...

E: Mom, I want a snack.

Mom makes visual contact with McDonalds, thus activating salivary glands.

M: Babe, you just had two snacks, I think you're good until lunch.

Mom averts eyes from the arches only to be hit with a Tim Hortons. Stomach grumbles.

E: I want another snack.

Mom spies play structure looming stealthily behind Tim Hortons.

(cue Top Gun soundtrack) Goose, it's time to buzz a tower.

M: Change of plans, babe. What do you say we get a snack at Tim Hortons and go to the park and play?

E: Oh-KAY! Let's DO IT!!!

Now that's just the beginning of the excitement. Sure, there was sand and slides and chocolate donuts, but imagine my surprise when I spotted an old steam engine on the other side of the road. And, a lighthouse? Wait a second...is that a rocket ship??! This would require some investigation. Turns out we were across the street from the Museum of Science and Technology! So we strolled over, opting out of the whole go-in-and-pay-admission scenario and just toured around. We went to the top of the Cape North lighthouse, at which point it occurred to me that getting down might be a predicament. We shot water bottle rockets into the sky alongside the Convair Atlas rocket, and rehydrated in the shade alongside a CN 6200 steam locomotive. Upon later research it turns out that there's also an Observatory, not to mention all sorts of wonderful things that can be found inside the museum itself. We will have to go back. But for today, with a little free time and a couple of open minds, we managed to take a boring old Saturday morning and turn it into an adventure.