One of my favorite things to do on weekdays is take the kids to a mid-day lunch at a local restaurant. I must admit, we don’t have a lot of stellar restaurant choices here in Hoquiam, but I make do. My favorite deli is closing in a few days and the family moving out of the area (double sad times) so my choices are further whittled down.
Today we hop on our bikes for our errands, and end up in a relatively new restaurant (a couple years or less) that embodies a sort of Olive Garden character complete with big band / Italian crooner music (which for me is far more enjoyable than the New Country at my favorite local sushi stop), white wine glasses for water, and lots of silverware rolled up in very thick napkins. I sip coffee (pretty bad) and ice water (very refreshing). The lunch takes a bit longer to get to our table but that’s okay because for the most part my kids are behaving and I am not irritable from hunger. Sophie could care less at the wait; she has her nose in a book and arguably would not notice if I thwacked her on the head with a butter knife. Nels is eating his weight in the gratis homestyle potato chips.
The establishment seems to contain mostly local businesspeople or retirees (what is it with the older ladies wearing tapered jeans, no socks, and crocs? Fashion, Harbor-style). Our lunch is a half order of hand-battered chicken strips and a caesar salad (missing the promised cherry tomatoes, sadly), followed (at the owner’s special favor) by a slab of Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate McFuckery – some sort of horrificly large slab of cake, an experiment the owner says will not be added to the menu. And it’s good (or at least I think so), but: “This is too chocloately!” Sophie exclaims (and if Sophie is saying this, we might need to don a hazmat suit before touching the stuff).
At the library I pick up The Unschooling Handbook: How to Use the Whole World As Your Child’s Classroom by Mary Griffith and put The Curse of the Good Girl: Raising Authentic Girls with Courage and Confidence by Rachel Simmons in my library hold list. I’m hoping when I get home the kids will off to the park, or outside doing gardening, and I’ll have a few minutes to work on the five dresses I’m sewing for Suse.
Oh! Too much chocolate? Is there such a thing? Crazy . . . and your weekday local restaurant lunches sound brilliant 🙂
for my tastebuds, there is almost nothing better than those chips and sauce. You should try the creme brulee, it is amazing.
E., I kind of agree with you on that. I mean sometimes I get overwhelmed with chocolate but that’s when it’s time to take a break and return later. My daughter ate the rest of the chocolate cake for breakfast this morning. So apparently she rallied.
C., those chips are pretty seductive. Nels said the chips were going swimming in a “pink pond” (the sauce) and did lots of dunking and diving (but he didn’t make a mess, thank god).