Outfit Of The Week 9/27/26 – 10/3/26
Anyone who has spent even a smidgen of time around these parts knows that a lot of my “OOTW” articles feature outfits I have worn on dates with my wife, either at-home or out-of-the-house.
This week’s edition is similar but not entirely the same. I was certainly out to dinner with my wife, but under somewhat different-than-normal circumstances.
Recently, my wife and I took our boys to one of the (apparently, many) Great Wolf Lodge water park resorts. We had never taken our boys (who are now 9 and 6) to a hotel before and figured one geared primarily toward children would be a good introduction. Also, we were only staying one night so it didn’t have the stress of a full-fledged “family vacation”.
In all honesty, we had a lovely time.
The place was gigantic. It has some rooms dedicated to the water park, along with an arcade and an area for things like mini-golf. We paid a little extra to get the boys some “free” perks like ice cream and candy. They also got to do a “magic quest” where they use electronic wands and wander around to different parts of the hotel to complete tasks. That was the most time-consuming activity they did!
Thank goodness my wife figured out how to do it, because I had no patience for it. Over the course of the two partial days we were there, my wife walked (we calculated) over 9 miles completing this quest! My oldest son was with her for most of it. My youngest son and I tapped out on the second day.
Anyway, long story short, there was PLENTY to keep the kids busy for a couple days.
The outfit you see here was what I wore when we went to one of the hotel restaurants. We had been in the water park area for a good 5 hours and were all very tired and hungry. And cold.
Taking off my bathing suit and putting on REAL clothes after a busy day was glorious!
Even though I knew that this was certainly NOT an environment where I felt compelled to dress up, I still wanted to look at least a little like I made an effort. We hardly ever go to a restaurant with my boys so I wanted to show them how a man dresses for dinner with his wife and family even if it’s not at a super fancy place.
I decided to wear a pink-and-white striped oxford shirt from Brooks Brothers and a brown tweed jacket from Aran Sweater Market. I actually wrote a review of this jacket a few years ago, which you can find here.
Both the shirt and jacket were gifts from my wife.
In this instance, I felt like a pocket square was too much, so I left it out.
My pants were an old pair of khaki chinos. I actually treat these chinos exactly like a pair of jeans, which means I am not precious about them. They’re usually a little rumpled and are a tad roomier than the chinos I wear to the office. I felt like they were a good choice for the venue, especially combined with an easy OCBD and rough tweed jacket.
My shoes were my Bass Weejuns since my boat shoes were wet from the day.
No tie. My watch was the steel Timex I wore in the pool.
This was probably the most casual “nice” outfit I’ve worn in a while and a pretty good example of how to look good without feeling like you’re going too overboard.
While ostensibly for children, my wife and I had a great time at the resort. Sure, it was loud and chaotic since it was packed with kids, but the rooms were large and clean, the entire staff was lovely, and the lifeguards ran a tight ship.
And, to be honest, any place I can get a decent steak and some wine is alright by me!
Have a wonderful weekend!
And yes, I am wearing wolf ears.
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