On Vacation

Until Monday!

We've got long-distance uncles and very pregnant aunts visiting. We've got a wedding tomorrow (thank you, Massachusetts, for making it legal for two men to share their lives together). We've got visits with friends. Most excitingly for Bambina (and depressingly for me), we've got lunch at Bugaboo Creek. It's a chain restaurant with a "lodge" feel. It's main attraction to the chilluns, however, is the giant talking moosehead on the wall. Every 10 minutes or so the giant head animates and tells a Bob Hope-style joke. Bambina can barely contain herself the entire time she's there, either enjoying the talking moosehead or asking every 30 seconds when it's going to talk again.

Did I mention that I hate chain restaurants? I made a pact years ago to not set foot in an Olive Garden or somesuch place, and would instead make the effort to find mom and pop places that are probably healthier and less schlocky. Also because watching people gorge themselves on All You Can Eat stuff just grosses me out. I don't know why. Maybe it's the gluttony of it all; a table of two people getting a 2 gallon bowl of salad and a car tire-sized plate of shrimp scampi. It creeps me out. Hence the pact to avoid the chains.

But then you have a kid who loves talking mooseheads, and all of a sudden you're back in All You Can Eat Salad and Breadsticks territory.

Viva la vacation!