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A Case for Unplanned Picnics

A Case for Unplanned Picnics

If you haven’t heard, tomorrow is International Picnic Day. National Picnic Day is April 23, but in Michigan the weather just isn’t quite right for a picnic at the end of April. June, though? You betcha.

Picnics have always seemed fun, but I never have them because they seem so daunting. Once you find the perfect spot, you have to get a cute basket, proportion all of the food, find a blanket to spread out, and then carry all of your trash back with you.

It wasn’t until mid-May that I found out how easy picnics can be as long as you lower your expectations. I give you: a case for unplanned picnics.

We’ve all seen it in the movies. A young couple goes out on their first date. The gentleman surprises her with a picnic under a tree by the river. They’re dressed up nicely, have a clean plaid blanket to lay on with no bugs in sight. He pulls out perfectly-preserved food from a tan wicker basket, and they flirt in the water, never having to clean it up.

Guess what? This is not realistic at all.

Once you get over that sad fact, picnics can be a lot of fun.

You may recall in one of my Sunday Scratches post back in May, where I talked about an impromptu picnic I went on with Sean, my parents, and Sean’s mom. We wanted to take his mom somewhere very “West Michigan,” because she hadn’t been before.

My mom had already prepared dinner, but we ended up throwing everything in a cooler, grabbing a blanket, and driving 45 minutes to Lake Michigan. We found an open picnic table, threw the blanket on top of it, and chowed down.

It was honestly one of my favorite trips to the beach, and it was much too cold to go swimming.

That’s the beautiful thing about picnics: they don’t have to be perfect. You can just throw dinner into a bag and take it with you. The only requirement is that you eat it outside with people you love.

Have you been on a picnic, planned or unplanned? Will you be celebrating International Picnic Day tomorrow? Let me know in the comments!

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Comments

  1. My kids and I picnic in the backyard all the time! 😉 Jace particularly like picnics INSIDE his club house. We are fans of picnics here! 😀 Also, the name of your blog is awesome.

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  2. I love this so much. I had a picnic for my 24th birthday, and it was wonderful. There’s something to be said about sitting in a random spot with amazing people and eating together. It’s pretty much the best.

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  3. Awe. I love how you said all you need is to be outdoors with the people you love. Sounds like the perfect picinic to me!

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  4. I love picnics! I haven’t taken one since the birth of our daughter last August but now that it’s summer I plan on having a few of them soon! I prefer planning picnics since I’m so Type-A and I need to make sure I’m well prepared. It’s amazing the memories that can be made from little events such as a family picnic!

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  7. The Saturday before Jaxon arrived, we went to the drive through then sat in the local country park at a picnic bench and ate our dinner. The boys then played on the play park (both of them were probably too old but they had a great time) while I nursed my very big belly – actually I think I sat on the bench giving Jaxon/my belly a running commentary about what was happening.

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