Roseau Times-Region - Serving Roseau County for over 100 Years - The Official Roseau County Newspaper

by Kali Wibbels, English 7, Mrs. Didrikson

Have you ever been on a family vacation? If so you have probably had many unforgettable moments. I had an unforgettable memory while on vacation with my grandparents that I am going to share.

We were on our typical two week summer vacation in the RV. We had driven for what seemed like forever and ended up halfway across the country, landing in Seattle, Washington. Per my grandpa's typical style, he picked up all the tourist information he could find. This included a book of must sees. We were having a great time playing games, swimming, visiting the Space Needle, and visiting with friends.

While looking through his tourist book my grandpa stumbled across a beach with an amazing waterfall. The pictures in the book looked breathtaking and we decided we had to go. The only unfortunate part was the waterfall was going to be a few hours drive. The reviews had stated that the best views of the waterfall were seen in the morning. With the moon still in the sky and the sun yet to rise, we got ready for the day and left the campground in search of this beautiful place.

The drive seemed to never end, we were all exhausted. Then out of the corner of my eye I spotted a coffee shop. I mentioned the idea of stopping there to my grandma and she said it was an amazing idea. The idea of an ice cold caffeinated beverage in my belly sounded amazing. My grandma being half asleep also thought it was a great idea. With the power of numbers we managed to convince our driver, grandpa, to stop.

As we drove up to the coffee shop we were all in awe as it was merely a small box on wheels, only large enough to accommodate one person. We quickly discovered that it was a drive through. This was great! I could get coffee and not have to get out of the car. Grandpa drove up to the single window and slowly rolled his hand powered window down. I thought to myself how embarrassing can this be. We scanned over the menu trying to find the perfect drink. The barista quickly took our order as we waited patiently.

Grandpa quickly became excited when he saw a "free" sign and cookies located on the window ledge. Because it was free, his stomach started growling and he decided to try one. He commented with a big grin on his face, how nice people are in Washington to give away free food. As he was about to place the cookie into his mouth, my grandma said, "Stop! That's a dog bone"!

Grandpa proceeded to argue about how crazy it would be to have dog bones at a coffee shop.

He nearly inhaled the treat at the exact time the barista opened her window to hand us our drinks. At that moment he knew that he had not eaten a human cookie. He had one of two options, swallow the treat or spit it out. He could not spit it out in front of the barista. She kindly handed him all three drinks as he sat in misery with a nasty dog treat in his mouth. Grandma conveniently asked for sugar which gave grandpa an opportunity to spit the dog treat out as the barista turned her back to grab the sugar packets.

Grandpa quickly grabbed a water bottle to rid his mouth of the awful taste of the treat. When the barista returned he asked her if the jar contained cookies. With a smirk on her face, she said, "No, those are dog bones". Grandpa looked surprised, and we were informed that it was common to have dog treats at coffee shops in Washington.

As we drove away, we were all in tears laughing at grandpa eating a dog bone. We called my mom and aunt and struggled to tell the story as we all had the giggles. We are pretty certain the barista knew grandpa ate a bone and that probably gave her a good laugh and story to tell as well. Grandpa learned a lesson; just because something is free doesn't mean you need to eat it. The rest of the trip we joked around about having him eat dog food for supper.

We did make it to the waterfall which was beautiful. Throughout the remainder of the drive, grandpa would break out with random dog barking sounds. All of our muscles were sore for a week due to all our laughing that day. The highlight of my day and trip happened at that small coffee shop. To this day, we continue to laugh about this event. Now that I have a dog, I am much more aware of dog treats being available and will not make this mistake myself.