The Charlie Bucket list trip

In this Willy Wonka world, it’s nice to find a Charlie Bucket every now and then.

We spent the weekend with ours.

Visits with our adult kids always feel like golden tickets to us anyway, and this one was an even rosier gold because it brought our family a lovely new member.

We had planned to fly to New Jersey this weekend to attend our son Charlie and his fiancee Tara’s wedding but, due to COVID-19 concerns, they wisely postponed the celebration to protect their guests. So, we’re very much looking forward to attending that nuptial par-tay in 2022.

In the meantime, we hopped in our car and made our way east for a wedding certificate signing ceremony (though the Wonkavator might have been a more appropriate choice given all the logistical challenges everyone faced from their respective states).

As travel bans came and went and came back again, our intrepid young couple graciously adjusted. To accommodate us Wisconsinites, who would have had to quarantine 14 days if we had stayed in New Jersey, they signed their marriage license in Pike County, Pennsylvania, which seems oddly appropriate because they’ll have quite a fish tale to tell.

That whole part of the country is especially beautiful and the perfect spot to witness a marriage. Our hearts swelled as we watched Charlie and Tara become a married couple in front of their parents, siblings and grandparents. (Some in person, some via video conference).

Roald Dahl, the dark humor-loving children’s book author, could have written the script for all our lives in this crazy pandemic world. But, I think this quote most aptly represents our son, who once hung a poster of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in his bedroom, and his well-read wife Tara:

Mr. Wonka: “Don’t forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he wanted.”

Charlie Bucket: “What happened?”

Mr. Wonka: “He lived happily ever after.”