Picnic At The Beach

I have always loved picnics. When we were little Mom used to take care of loading up the basket with our favourite sandwiches, fruit, cookies, and homemade lemonade. We'd stake out the perfect picnic table and race off to the huge park with many many swings and a super long slide, and when we were finally too hot to race around it was off to the lake to cool off. We were not great eaters but picnic food is special isn't it? I remember that we were so happy when called to lunch and none of rushed back to play until we were totally finished eating. There was something magical about a day at the beach with Mom and Dad. As a mom I wanted to recreate those picnics for my children and I found that I was the one trying to include everyones favourite foods, omit their dislikes and basically think of everything, which is exactly what moms do but I had not seen my mom planning and/or preparing so it was a revelation to find out just how much effort goes into the simple picnic. Now that the kids are grown I assumed that my picnic days were behind me. I never expected to have anyone prepare a picnic for me, and that is why I was so surprised when upon our arrival at the lake, my friend removed a rather large cooler from the back of his car. We found the perfect picnic table and when the cooler was opened I found picnic fare unlike any I'd ever had before. No homemade drinks but a perfectly chilled bottle of wine, no sandwiches but crusty baquettes with any number of possible bread toppers, an amazing dessert, etc. etc. Not surprisingly, I still love picnics and not even a bit of rain can change that.