Saturday, July 29, 2006

The "Grand Canyon Effect"

Took some time out of the busy lifestyles of Team Williams to attend the Annual Garlic Festival, held in the Garlic Capital of the World - Gilroy, CA. The festival wasn't quite what I imagined, I pictured in my mind a large gathering of docile "foodies" tasting a wide array of exotic uses of my one of my favorite foods. Instead it was a massive, chaotic mosh pit of humanity ringed by cooking stalls that did however deliver on the "exotic garlic use" portion of the program. However, based on the crowd and its un-natural affinity for the Coors beer tent it struck me as an event that would have been much more enjoyable if a) it had it been just my wife and I, without kids in tow, eating our way across the festival and / or b) if I were married to my first cousin or another close relative.

Then why, might you ask, does Team Williams load the kids and grandparents into the minivan in order to attend these types of events? Its largely due to what I call the "Grand Canyon Effect", namely the fact that back in 1998 - 2000, during the pre-kids, go anywhere phase of our marriage we lived in five hours from the Grand Canyon and managed to never ever visit it. Granted five hours is a long way to drive for a weekend visit but come on people we are talking about the worlds largest hole in the ground. Therefore, its now with some curiosity and a large dose of canyon guilt that we seek out these new adventures. Chocolate Festival being held in the western production headquarters of the Hershey Company? Yep, we're there. Lake Tahoe? Sure, we swam in it, even though it was freezing cold. If its in the tour guide, we've been or are planning going there. Maybe someday we'll even make it to the Grand Canyon.

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