Day After Rita's Free Ice Day

Rita's Ices had a "first day of spring - free ice day" yesterday, March 20, 2010. This is a yearly event. Obviously the warm weather and prior advertisement let the entire population of Edison, NJ know about this event. As we attempted to pull into the mini mall where the Rita's Ice emporium is located, it was bumper to bumper traffic heading to the drive through window. There were SUV's with at least ten people waiting for their free ice and other various vehicles with no less than three people in each vehicle. The walk up window had a line that was at least 200 feet long and it did not quit. As soon as a few people were served, more vehicles dropped off more and more people. If you saw my pictures of my sister and her grandsons, earlier we attended an Easter party sponsored by the Columbiettes group of which I belong. This is the female counterpart of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic organization.

So after attending the party we decided to head to Rita's and get the kids and ourselves a free ice. Rather than get on the long line, my sister noticed that along with the celebration there was a bouncing castle on the side of the Rita's parking lot. So I stayed in the car because walking and standing for a long time can be a problem for me. My sister promptly took the boys over to the bouncing castle and was gone for about a half hour. The boys had a ball and even the baby got some laughs as the other kids bounced him around inside the castle. We had already decided that getting a free ice was not really worth the wait but the bouncing castle was an unexpected bonus.

From then we headed to a nearby McDonalds and each had an ice cream cone that cost ninety-nine cents each. The McDonalds was not too busy and we had a great booth and a high chair for the baby. Rather than have to wrestle with fruity ices (which are wonderful, but we had lots of sweets at the party anyway), we got to sit in comfortable surroundings where we had access to napkins and a bathroom if needed. The baby got to share his ice cream cone with his Grammy and I enjoyed the company of my sister and her boys.

Oh, don't worry; we will be back to Rita's several times now that the warmer weather is here, but probably without kids!