An Idyllic Afternoon
Sunday afternoon, my spouse’s employer had an event for their employees and families at a local mini-golf/go-cart and more place. All we had to pay for was the gasoline for the car to get there and back. We got bracelets that entitled us to unlimited rides and mini-golf, a handful of tokens each for the arcade, and a free hot buffet lunch. The weather was just perfect and the lines were not too long for anything.
I know that this was a perk of my spouse’s job, and without that, it would have been a very expensive afternoon (rounds of mini-golf and rides on the go-carts went for $5/person, for example), but for us it was free, and it was the nicest free afternoon I’ve had in a very long while. My son and I went on all the rides the place offered (a little roller coaster, some spinning type things, and a free fallish thing), we all played a round of mini-golf, and my spouse and I took my son on the go-carts. I am a master of the go-cart and passed everyone both times we rode. While my spouse took my son for a ride, I played on a grassy spot with my daughter overlooking the track and kept her from eating dandelions and cheered with her when the rest of our family rode by.
I am starting to really understand what people mean when they talk about paying for experiences vs paying for “stuff”. We all had a perfect afternoon and the only”stuff” we brought home was a little hacky-sack my son won in the arcade. We didn’t even take the free tote bag (well… we forgot to. But still, do we need a purple tote bag emblazoned with the FedEx logo? Probably not.).
Life is good. Free is even better. And my son is still talking about what an awesome go-cart driver I am.
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October 1st, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Wow, that is a great afternoon. I love the fact that many great experiences are free or cost very little. You just have to be able to spot them, and many are right under your nose. You know what I noticed when paying out the nose for an experience: I try to “have fun” even if it is crowded and miserable, so I don’t feel bad about blowing all that money. If it’s free or inexpensive that pressure is GONE!!!!
October 2nd, 2007 at 8:16 am
STA Travel (student travel specialists) had a slogan ‘Experience is Everything’. I’ve come to take that as my motto.
Clearly, free great experiences are better than expensive great experiences.
October 3rd, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Experience is everything.(Especially if it is free
)