Last-Minute

Friday night we planned to meet my husband downtown for a little picnic before proceeding to watch a children's theater production that our daughter Lucy was in. (Rumpelstiltskin: cheesy yet delightful!!) But, I had nothing planned for a picnic dinner (and for me, planning is everything) and so it was a last-minute decision to make some pasta salad.  I had some mini wagon wheels, which were fun, and a can of artichoke hearts, which were a splurge, so between that and some other bits of cheese and veggies, we made a pretty good picnic.  It could have used another course, truthfully, but it got the job done.

As a bonus, we got free ambience from a blues festival that was going on in the park we had planned to eat in.  We walked all the way there with our tote bag of food and water bottles, only to find it fenced off and tickets being sold, which was a dilemma and a bummer.  Luckily, we managed to skirt around a corner of the fence and find a bench on the far side outside the boundaries, facing the riverfront and near the performance backstage area.  I hope it wasn't dishonest of us to enjoy a little music from that vantage point while we munched off our paper plates, but it was too disheartening a thought to trek all the way back to the car with our kids and uneaten food.  And it was a beautiful, beautiful summer evening, blues music and family along the water was really nice.