We had grand plans for the day: to go to Ikea and buy a kitchen table and an itty-bitty table for Phoebe. It’s a bit of a trek to get there, so that was pretty much the agenda for the day.
We planned to leave home by 10:00 a.m., and were happy to make it out of the house around noon.
Before leaving, I checked the directions online, and they looked pretty straightforward. We’d been there twice before, after all, so I didn’t bother to write them down. As you can guess, things were not as straightforward as I remembered. We didn’t get “lost,” exactly. We just had some difficulty finding what we expected to find. At one point, we drove down a street that looked vaguely familiar and I ever-so-briefly saw the Ikea sign poking its head up above a large building. But the end of the street came, with no sign of Ikea (or sign of the sign, for that matter). So we looped. We explored. We meandered and roamed for a bit. We marvelled at how so large a thing as an Ikea store could be so very thoroughly hidden in a rather small Massachusetts town.
Eventually, I realized that we had a road atlas in the car, and as I attempted to get us back to the main drag, we passed a street sign (an unusual thing to see in many parts of Massachusetts) that said “Ikea Way.” We took this to be a very good sign.
Soon after, we found our hidden prize. It was as if we found that Easter egg, albeit one the size of several city blocks. Our cheaply manufactured blue and yellow pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. This felt like accomplishment. It was as if we had completed a quest. I ask you, can one feel such a sense of accomplishment by merely following directions? Pshaw.
(Oh, and we did get a kitchen table. And a table and 2 chairs for Phoebe that are really frickin’ cute, and that John’s already taken over for his laptop. Plus a kitchen clock. And a basket for the laundry room. Oh, and some tongs. And a huge stuffed orca, 2 rats, 4 bats, a crab, a turtle, some finger puppets, a wooden gear toy and really, we did try to show some restraint. We could at least fit all our purchases in the car at the end of the trip. Without even resorting to strapping Phoebe’s car seat to the roof of the car.)
collecting tokens 
all roads dont lead to Ikea, but Ikea is big enough to house them all.
Whyohwhy. This is the story of every trip I’ve ever taken to a new Ikea store. I think it’s a test: if you can find the store (eventually), you’re smart enough to put together the furniture.
ikea freaks me out. it’s all so streamlined and confusing. plastic and bulbous.
phaderus-
Yeah, you pretty much need a road atlas to navigate in one of those stores.
Sage-
Ah, yes. A test. Kind of like the shape-sorting box we recently got for Phoebe. Of course, she’s discovered that the fastest way to fit the shapes in the box is to take off the lid. She would choose to buy pre-assembled furniture.
jen-
Confusing and streamlined, yes. But they have toys!
“Without even resorting to strapping Phoebe’s car seat to the roof of the car.”
Or Phoebe … ;)
I have a love/hate thing with IKEA, though I’m very happy they finally opened one (near) here a few years ago.
azahar-
Phoebe did get to stay inside the car. Though she had to share her seat with the orca.
And I get the love/hate thing, too. I’ve been struggling lately to try to reduce the amount of stuff I have, and get better quality stuff when I do get it. And then Ikea comes along…