As I drove down the narrow road to the Fort Fisher Aquarium last week, I glanced at the clock on my dash and felt my heart rate go up. We were two hours late getting here and now we were going to get stuck in rush hour traffic on the way back to Raleigh. I then heard Trevor holler behind me, "Turn around. I want to see the ocean before we go to the aquarium."

I started to tell him that we couldn’t because we were late, but then I stopped myself. Really, what were we actually late for? We weren’t meeting anyone at a specific time. We weren’t attending a program that we had registered for. We were just late against the schedule I had made in my head, but in reality the whole point of the day was to simply spend time with my kids and have fun. I turned the van around and headed to the nearest spot where we could see the ocean.

When we got out of the van at the overlook, we stood there watching the waves, listening to the ocean and enjoying feeling warm sunshine on our arms for the first time in weeks. After a few minutes, my imaginary schedule started nagging me again and I began to herd everyone back into the van. I then heard Laurel shriek, "Oh my Goodness. There is a whale." Without even turning around to look, I told my daughter that there were no whales here and that it was time to get in the car. Laurel then used what I’m sure will be her "Mommy Voice" in twenty or so years and declared firmly, "No. There are a bunch of whales. Look."

When I turned around, I was treated to the beautiful sight of a school of dolphins swimming 30 yards off the shore. After I gently explained to Laurel that they were dolphins not whales, she said "But we would have missed them if you hadn’t listened to me." We stood there for 15 minutes marveling at the dolphins diving through the waves and playing with each other. The kids continuously snapped pictures and yelled each time one they spotted a dolphin. They delighted in pointing out the dolphins to everyone that they saw.

When we finally made our way back to the car, I realized Laurel was right. I was so anxious to hurry us on to our "preplanned experience" that we almost missed the joy of watching the dolphins. The kids enjoyed the aquarium, but I know that in a few months they will have forgotten about the sharks they saw in the tank, but will vividly remember seeing the dolphin’s fins as they jumped through the air.