While visiting my daughter, Cesca, she surprised me with an unscheduled trip to IKEA. We were running some errands and she said, with excitement  “Hey, let’s pick up Michael (my grandson) early and then go to Ikea!”

Can you feel my joy? The LARGEST Ikea in America is in Burbank, California. That is our destination. It was just opened a few months ago. The new address was put into the GPS and off we went. Took a couple of dicey turns but the GPS got us there. The approach to the parking lot is interesting. There are roundabouts and cars coming from all directions. They don’t know where they are going either!  I thought the old store was large. The new store; The Getty  Center in Los Angeles with shopping carts!

We make it to the front of the store to an area that has parking for families with young children. The handicap slots are off to another side. We see a family headed to their car. We wait, they are going to a great spot. Of course, it is a LONG process for the family to: load the items, then the baby, take the cart back, Mom to return to the car and Dad, to at last, pull out of the spot. Success.

At first, since she knew ‘exactly’ what she wanted, Cesca was going to just run in and get it. Everything changed when the little guy, Tony didn’t fall asleep. UH OH, now we a ALL went in. But first, we needed a Bathroom Break.

AND the adventure began. Picture it: Tony, a toddler, (21 months) and Michael, 4 3/4 years old, trapped in carts as we roamed the displays. Each boy wanted Mommy on their cart. I pushed the cart with Tony for a bit and then we switched. Now I pushed Michael. I am not even sure where we were in this gigantic depository!

After we browsed the office examples, the children’s furniture and kitchen presentations, Cesca asked where the bedroom furniture was located. We were pointed to a secret passage door. Thank God. We cut off about a mile of walking (at least it felt like it) using the passage. She found the dresser, got the code/number/skew whatever and we began to make our way downstairs. Oh yeah, did I mention that this is a 2 story number? The top floor was just as LARGE as the bottom floor.

Back to the front of the store for the elevators. By my estimation, we were over the checkout area below.  Whew, me made it to the first level. Oh geez, now we needed to trek through the entire downstairs part and locate the item in the warehouse area. Lord help me. I was pushing Michael and uttered ‘F*&%’.

“Did you just say a bad word GiGi?” he asked. “Yes I did Michael, yes I did.”

We switched baskets again. As we continued our odyssey, we perused the linens, tableware, and the patio furniture. At last, the warehouse area was in view. Cesca spied the aisle for the dresser. I, wisely, chose to stay out of it. As a stock person walked by, I said “She needs help down that aisle. Can you please help her?” Luckily he hoisted the 2 boxes for the dresser onto the cart and found the glass topper too. Now we headed to the check out lane.

Mike, my son-in-law, on his way home from a meeting was just down the street! Yippee. He met us at the checkout line and helped put the stuff into his truck. Tony was with Mike and Mom went to get ice cream cones for the boys. Nice. We were, at last, homeward bound.

I survived the Ikea adventure. Or did I speak to soon?

Frances Graziano Copyright 6/2/17 All Rights Reserved