Recently, one of our Very Important Parents from Houston, Alice, send in her experience of one of her family vacations to share with you. Alice titled it:
Family Tradition
When our two sons were 7 and 14, we decided to start a family tradition of attending bowl games every year. To see if this new idea ""fit"" our family, we decided to start with one of the smaller bowl games -- the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas. Besides being a little less expensive than others, it was also close enough for us to drive.
During those years, weather on the western Texas desert, surrounding El Paso was mild. Getting to the city two days in advance of the game, we enjoyed the sunshine and 80-degree weather as we visited some historic sites and walked through El Mercado in adjacent Juarez, Mexico.
The morning of the game, however, the skies had become terribly overcast and the temperature had dropped dramatically to about 55 degrees.
Intrepid travelers that we were, we decided nothing could keep up from the bowl game, so we scurried around the city, looking for heavier clothing to wear over our shorts and T-shirts. We were successful in finding warm-ups for the entire family and, luckily, we had all brought coats in anticipation of visiting family in Albuquerque, NM following the game.
Most of the stores in El Paso didn‘t carry mittens, but after an intense search, we found four pair of one-size mittens at a 7/11 store.
Getting to the Sun Bowl, we found the temperature had dropped even more, so we detoured by a Wal-Mart to buy blankets for each of us. Finally seating ourselves about half-way up the bowl-shaped stadium on the 40 yard line, we were all set to enjoy the game -- or were we?
Shortly after kick-off, it began snowing with the wind gusts captured in the bowl blowing snow over us like a dust-storm, only colder. In fact, the temperatures were now down below freezing and we noticed many of the hardy souls that were there prior to the kick off had disappeared.
""Mom, are we going to die here?"" my seven-year-old wanted to know as serious snow began coming down and the wind was strong enough to sting our faces.
His older brother countered, ""If we die here, we‘ll definitely miss Santa Claus, but I‘m sure they‘ll find our frozen bodies...eventually.""
As the second half began, we decided that enough was enough. The tradition of going to bowl games would continue for our family but that particular day, we threw traditions to the wind and finished watching the game in our suite of rooms at the hotel.
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