Restaurant gluttony

I love to eat out.

I'm sure I inherited this addiction to packing up the kids, baby food, and toys from my mother, but I do love the mindlessness of not having to choose a meal and then prepare it.

It's like a moment of vacation that I look forward to every week.

So when we started planning our vacation to Florida, I began relishing in the thought of a luxurious week of no meal planning! In the past, a highlight of vacationing for Walter and I has been finding the best local restaurants. We love experiencing the ambiance of a hidden hot spot and Walter regularly orders the item on the menu he is most unlikely to try at home. Those vacation meals often pop to my head when I remember highlights of past vacations.

But!

Now we travel differently.

We now search for all the McDonalds playlands rather than the romantic quiet spots with views over the ocean. We checkout the kids menus ahead of time to make sure we can accommodate a picky little boy who only eats a bunless hamburger. We look for the loudest dining areas so after our little girl holds her 17th staring contest with a stranger and then bursts into hysterics when they smile back at her we won't have to rush to the parking lot.

And so I find it ironic how I looked forward to returning to my kitchen, my recipe box, and my grocery stores.

Sometimes too much of a vacation is too much. Dining out in bits and pieces throughout a month is wonderful but a weeks worth of menus and booths with dirty floors to lay on is more than I can handle.

I guess we learned the meaning and dangers of excessive indulgence - restaurant gluttony.

So give me back my Kitchen Aid, my 20 year old stove, and my weekly excursion to the Coffee Hound and I will be a happy mom.