We were walking out of Bed, Bath, and Beyond when my daughter saw lightning lighting up the sky. My two youngest are afraid of thunder and lightning, so I knew it was going to be a long ride home.

As we got in the car, it started to sprinkle. I headed out of the parking lot when my oldest said, "Mama, SpiderMan said he had to pee." This was no problem, a gas station was right across the street. As I drove to the gas station, the sky opened up and rain poured down on us like a waterfall.

Flip’s 13 years old, so I feel comfortable sending him into the bathroom with SpiderMan. SpiderMan, at three years old likes to use the "men’s woom", as he calls it. The "yadies woom" is for girls, he says.

They went into the gas station and came back out in less than 30 seconds. Flip informed me that both the men’s and the ladies’ were out of order. We’d have to go somewhere else. But where? In this rain, getting to the next nearest gas station would take a long time, and no matter where we went in the shopping center, we would have a fairly long walk to the place we went. It was now raining cats and dogs and chickens and frogs, and I had to make a decision quickly.

I decided a food place would be the best bet, and there was an ice cream shop, a burrito joint, and a coffee shop close by. I opted for the coffee shop, knowing a hot chocolate would be great in the cold rain.
We made a dash through the rain into the shop. When we came in, everyone stopped what they were doing to look at us. We were completely soaked through. One of the baristas said, "Wow, you guys were determined to come get some coffee, huh?"

Flip and SpiderMan dashed to the bathroom. I ordered three hot chocolates, kid temperature, and one Red Bull for me. One of the baristas let me know they had games we could play while waiting out the storm. Ah, coffee shop, how I love you. Thanks for being our port in the storm tonight.