So, you know that I love to plan vacations. I love planning as much as going. As soon as a trip is over, I need another to look forward to. A friend's trip will do if we don't have anything on the calendar -- I can help brainstorm sites, restaurants, activities, clothes needed, etc.
We are on a quick getaway this weekend at the Lost Pines Hyatt near Bastrop. (I was supposed to go on a girls' weekend last fall, but we had to cancel last minute, too late to get the deposit back. So we postponed until January. I couldn't go anywhere in January. So I moved the date a couple more times until this weekend worked -- but this time for Steve, the kids and I.)
Anyway, I wanted to be more spontaneous and not plan so much, just to see how that worked. Most everything we need is at the hotel -- swimming, dining, s'mores around a campfire, Olympics on the TV in our room.
Before we checked in, we decided to have lunch in Bastrop. I didn't have a restaurant selected in advance. We just headed for the historical district, looking for someplace local. We found a cute little house with a charming hand-painted sign and decided to take a table.
There were many clues that we should have left -- most significantly the tables that hadn't been cleared held plates with huge portions remaining. But it was hot, after 1 p.m. and Katie was fussy (she has a cold and had just been roused from a nap).
It was awful! The chicken-fried steak, marked as a specialty of the house, was tangy. The mashed potatoes were overly garlicky, and not in a good way -- I think they used garlic salt or powder instead of fresh, and they used way too much.
In such a situation, I would just push my plate aside and share with Steve. But he'd ordered the same! So we just laughed our way through lunch, making faces and pushing the food around our plate.
All was not lost. Cooper devoured his plate of chicken, vegetables and fries and then ate much of our meal. He declared it "the best meal ever!"
What I'm taking from the experience:
1. Cooper has questionable taste in chicken-fried steak, a problem that needs to be remedied.
2. Steve and I should not order the exact same food.
3. I need embrace, not shun, my love of planning.
1 comment:
Ken and I watched a special on chicken fried steak about a month ago. That is one dish you do not see on the menu in Michigan! So our children would share in Cooper's lack of CFS taste, if they would even eat it.
Lack of planning isn't always bad. We've stumbled upon many surprises in such a manner. But it's always nice to have direction, too!
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