Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Quest for the World's Best Long John

Mark had the day off yesterday, so we took a family day.  The plan was to head over to a neighbouring city and eat some pasta at a restaurant that we have heard good things about and then hop over to a bakery we had tried before and get some donuts and apple pie.  The baked goods at this bakery are beyond my description.  They are simply phenomenal.  I have never had such a delicious long john donut in my life.

The pasta restaurant fell far below our expectations.  We had both heard, from different sources, that they had great food.  Well first off, once inside I thought I was blind.  The lighting was so dim.  Lots of restaurants have dimmer lighting, trying for a mood or something right?  But this was just beyond anything.  There were only windows at the very front, and these were just some small ones up high.  And the lights were only down the aisles, not over the tables.  I am a bit of a light sensitive freak, so this was a huge issue for me. 

Both my hubs and I ordered the 'pasta of the day' which happened to be penne, with two meatballs.  And that's all I really can say about it.  It was just that, nothing great, nothing horrendous, just penne.  Slightly disappointing.  And to top it off, they didn't even have fries.  What restaurant doesn't have fries?  They had "JoJos".  What are "JoJos" you may ask?  This is exactly the question I asked our waitress since she seemed to assume that we knew what "JoJos" were when she explained that they didn't have fries.  "JoJos" are small roasted potatoes.  They are actually quite tasty, but don't really cut it with picky 4-year-olds who only eat fries in restaurants.

I didn't eat much lunch, both because I didn't really like it and also to save some calorie room for long johns!  We truck over one block to the bakery and are greeted with a sign saying they are on vacation for the month.  Words cannot express my disappointment. 

We perked up though and decided to try a bakery we saw a block over.  But they didn't have much of a selection, just a few cookies and what are cookies to long johns? 

So we decide to run over to the town next door, so to speak, since it's just 20kms away.  I looked up some bakeries to try and we didn't have too hard a time finding them.  But, no joking, this one was closed too.  So we decided (again) to try the NEXT town, about 50ish kms away. 

This town was so stinking busy and so funnily laid out, we looped the main street blocks a few times, first looking for the bakeries, then looking for places to park.  We tried 3 or 4 there, but none had what we were looking for.  Just cakes and muffins, no DONUTS!!!

I admitted defeat and we went to Safeway and got some donuts and cookies from there, and two frappucinos for us, since I was in need of a huge caffeine burst.  These donuts fell so short of what I had been hoping for, I could only eat a few bites.

But a plus of our three-town-search was that we got to go home across the lake ferry and the girls just loved it.  And while we were waiting for the ferry they got to watch some ducks.  So that was almost worth it.

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