The bowling incident...

We wanted to have an outing as a family. After a week of hectic schedules and not-so-patient interactions with each other on all levels (yes, all levels: inter-sibling, parent-child, and spousal), it was time to have a unity-building activity. A reminder that yes, we do like each other, and yes, we can take time away from the "scheduled events" to just have fun together.

Bowling was the answer. Or so I thought. Throw in the complication of Jakarta, and it became not quite so clear cut.

My only job was to locate a bowling alley that catered to families (instead of a seedy place that includes additional forms of "recreation") and find out how to get to said bowling alley. Straight forward, right? Wrong.

I found a bowling alley listed on several websites with good reviews. New plush facility with bumpers on the gutters for novice bowlers. And a miracle: only a short 15 minute drive away.

We loaded into the car with the hope of slippery lanes, cool shoes, and shiny bowling balls just calling to us! We hit traffic. The 15 minute drive turned into 40...but not to despair, it would still be fun.

We arrived at Pasarya Mall. From the website, the bowling alley was on the 7th floor. We found the elevator and pushed 7. When the elevator door opened on the 7th floor, we were greeted not by a bowling alley but by frilly dresses in the children's department. We checked the elevator and saw that there was indeed a recreation center but it was on the 9th floor. No problem.

We arrived at the 9th floor. Still no bowling alley. We asked around. No one had ever heard of a bowling alley in that building. We showed them the website with the matching address to the building we were standing in. Nope. No bowling alley here. And yes, this is the only Pasarya Mall in Jakarta.

The ride home was a brutal 60 minutes. By the time we got home we slunk out of the car like melting playdough. I was more than a little deflated.

I was discouraged. A wasted afternoon in search of something we never found. I was also discouraged because I let all the defeats of the day get to me. I felt like Jakarta had won and we had lost (yes, I turned the hunt for a bowling alley into an epic battle, because in Jakarta it sometimes feels like that).

Our consolation was dinner at a restaurant and a trip to the movie theater. But I have to be honest, it's getting old. When our only reliable form of family entertainment is eating out and a movie (and of course game nights at home), I feel a bit like a loser. I miss long walks in the clean air. Or a spontaneous visit to a playground. I miss Frisbee games on a green lawn. Or miniature golf, bowling, museums!! and hiking options all within a 30 mile radius. I miss the reliability of America - how accessible all of it is. The choices. Oh the choices.

I miss the weekends when dinner out and a movie wasn't the only choice, it was the rare thing we chose to do after we'd filled our time with everything else. Our family doesn't bond over a dinner/movie the same way we bond while walking down the W&OD trail or a game of baseball at Hamilton Park.

Perhaps it's time to get more creative...I'll work on this. And in the meantime, I'll try to track down an actual existing bowling alley in Jakarta.