When I left the house, I didn't really know where I was going other than to the bank. But knowing that I needed to be away from home for a few hours, I took the precaution of bringing a magazine along and decided that I would find a nice place where I could sit outside and have lunch since the weather was so amazing. While sitting in the bank drive thru I decided to hit the Katy Trail Ice House for lunch, because after all, it was nearly 2 in the afternoon, so there was no way even with the perfect weather there would be that many people having a late lunch or early happy hour..... WRONG! When I drove into the parking lot, there were no parking places within the first two parking areas. Now I have gone into the Katy Trail Ice House on one occasion when the parking lot was that full and I had to sit about 5 feet from the main bar inside. Well, the hole point in going yesterday was to enjoy the beautiful weather. So I wasn't going to go for a table inside. So, I left.
At that point it dawned on me that it was Spring Break in Plano and the Plano mom's that work take off work during spring break to stay home with the kids. I know this because in my previous life I employed several Plano mom's and you couldn't get any of them to work during Spring Break. The other factor coming into play was that most Plano mom's aren't really the types to sit at home with kids and cook meals, so they go out to lunch and probably dinner too while the kids are home for Spring Break. So I decided to head south back toward Dallas where the mom's aren't quite so involved and more willing to leave the kids at home alone during Spring Break, or at least if they stay home with the kids, they might keep them at home and not fill up all the restaurants.
Back in North Dallas, I decided to give Hook, Line and Sinker one more try. It's a casual restaurant that serves fish (mostly fried) and they too have good outdoor seating. I went a couple of times right after they opened last year. Each time the food was not seasoned at all. I mean, fried fish and fries with no salt is just insane! Who would ruin fried fish by not using any seasoning in the cooking whatsoever??? So, I thought surely they had fixed that issue in the last year. Not so much. Additionally, I got two pieces of catfish one of which was taken out of the fryer a few minutes too early and was raw in the middle. Add to that the "tarter sauce" was just a glob of mayo with no seasonings in it. What do these people have against seasoning? And the only thing even remotely good about my lunch is that 3 cats weren't walking across my plate poking their noses into my meal to see what was for lunch.
But while I poked through my catfish looking for bites that might be edible and burning time before I had to go back home and sit back down at my desk to finish up some cruise queries while trying to keep cats from trying to catch the cursor as it moves across my monitor, which by the way, happens to be a touch screen monitor (this is particularly fun for the cats), I started thinking about why those annoying Plano mom's didn't take their kids on a vacation for Spring Break. I mean seriously!!!! What is their problem? It could have been a win/win/win. I could have booked it for them earning a buck or two to put toward painting the interior of my house/office. They wouldn't be in Plano right now taking up all the outdoor dining space with their rowdy little monsters. Plus if they played their cards right and booked a cruise or a kid friendly all inclusive, they could put those little monsters in the kids programs while they experience a total state of relaxation. What's wrong with these people?
But here we are with all these kids out of school with no place to be because their parents didn't plan ahead and book a vacation last year when they could get an outstanding price. Don't let this happen to you next year. Plan ahead! Call your friendly self employed home based travel agent who could really use the business and just might be willing to meet you at your home, place of employment, any restaurant or Starbucks you choose, or any place else that doesn't allow cats and has free WiFi to work on planning your family trip of a lifetime. So keep that in mind next year. If we book your Spring Break trip just as soon as school calendars come out, you're certain to get a great price and you'll have it to look forward to through the entire VERY long winter.
Hope the rest of your Spring Break is great and you can get into the restaurant of your choice. But if that's your desire, stay out of Plano and probably Frisco and Allen too!
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