Them Apples

We ate out a lot on our trip, which meant a lot of time deciding where to go, traveling to a restaurant, and then waiting for our large party to be seated and served. It was nice, but as far as family bonding time went it wasn't really that effective, because it was often so noisy that the people at one end of the table couldn't hear the people at the other end. One night we went to Chili's (I got the fajita trio, which was fabulous). At one point I leaned over and said to my dad, "I wish it wasn't so loud!" and Dad (who is getting just a bit hard of hearing) said, "What?"

The day before we left, we went to Panera Bread for lunch. While waiting in line we heard the girls behind the counter taking orders, and asking, "Which side do you want? Apple, chips, or bread?" Now, looking at the way I wrote it (I'm a fan of the serial comma), it's easy to tell that it's three different things. But, standing in line, unable to hear the punctuation, it just sounded like "Apple chips or bread." Several of us thought that the first item was apple chips. Kyle even asked for apple chips, thinking they sounded good. I noticed a few people walking by with apples on their trays, so I figured it out before placing my order, and asked for an apple. (Doug got some chips to split with Kate.)

Later, after we'd mostly finished our meals and I was sitting there eating my chosen side, Betsey looked over at me and said, "Oh, it's an apple!" She said that while she was standing in line, she heard the girl taking someone else's order say "apple chips or bread," and she thought, "I don't want apple chips!" Then when she got up to the counter the girl said, "Apple bread or chips," and she thought, "I don't want apple bread!" (This may make it sound like Betsey's a bit of a ditz. She's not. But she had us all laughing while she was relating her story!)

That's it from California! Here's a picture of Kate sacked out at the hotel.