"Free" ice cream

Today is Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's, so I forced persuaded some friends to go with me today. Because a good friend is there when you eat ice cream, but a great friend is there when you have to drive for miles and use lots of gas to get to the closest place where the free ice cream is.

We chose the Ben & Jerry's at Sawgrass Mills Mall, a kiosk near the Colonnade area. That's the White Seahorse Entrance for old-timers, aka the Rainforest Cafe entrance. We were so eager to get our free ice cream that we arrived before the kiosk was open, so we decided to let the kids play in the Rainforest Cafe play area. Except that was closed too. We watched Rainforest Cafe employees clean the alligator pit (fun job!) until someone came and opened the play area.

Before we knew it, lunch time rolled around, and the kids were hungry. I have always wanted to try the casual French cafe in the Colonnade (Paul's?), but we thought the kids would have more fun at the Rainforest Cafe.

My friends and I all agreed we made the wrong call.

We were the first people seated, yet it took about 40 minutes to get our food. We ordered a hamburger, house salad and a cheese pizza. What's so hard about that? The server -- who was unfailingly cheerful, despite my son's food-flinging habits -- came back after ordering to ask me if I wanted the 10-inch or the 6-inch pizza. The 6-inch was fine -- but it turned out to be from the kid's menu, not the nice four-cheese pizza on the regular menu. The server didn't explain that. So basically, I paid $6.35 for the Chef Boyardee special.

Eating out with toddlers, time is everything. They don't like to be strapped into high chairs or booster seats in the first place, and you can distract them with toys for only so long. If you don't feed them when they're hungry, they make everyone in the restaurant pay by shrieking and wailing! Sitting and waiting for 40 minutes for food to come, and then eating (er, throwing food on the floor), and then waiting for the bill to come .... That's a lot of sitting for a perpetual-motion creature with a short attention span. And even the Rainforest Cafe thunderstorms, fish aquariums and animatronic gorillas can't help you then.

Eventually, we did get our free Ben & Jerry's cones. And made a donation for a good cause.

But next time, ah, next time, I'm going to Paul's.

Maybe without children.