Columbia and Fatz Cafe

We left the house today shortly before 3:00 p.m. (2:53 p.m. to be exact). We intended to leave between 1:30 and 2:00 p.m. so that we'd be leaving right at naptime for Miss Annabelle, but it was very difficult to pack with a 19 month old following closely at our heels. It seemed as if everything we would pack, she would just come right behind us and unpack it.

We arrived in Columbia, South Carolina around 6:15 p.m. Annabelle was a pretty good girl on the way to Columbia. She did fall asleep just minutes after we left the house. She woke up several times along the way, and she would start whimpering and then fussing. I had given her a dose of Tylenol before we pulled out of the driveway to ease the pain of those teeth pushing through, but she still needed to fuss a little bit when she was awakened by the car stopping, etc.

We had booked a motel in Columbia just a few minutes before we left home because I was afraid we would not be able to find anything for a decent price if we waited until we arrived (especially with it being Memorial Day weekend). We got our motel room for only $60 per night through Expedia! When we arrived though, my husband asked the front desk attendant at the hotel what the price would have been if we had just walked in without a reservation, and she said it would have been $59.99. I guess we spent a penny too much! I don't think that was even the AAA rate though, so we might have saved another $5-$6 more. Oh well!

We unpacked our things first before deciding to grab a bite to eat. Annabelle was thrilled to be some place new! She entertained herself by running around the hotel room finding pamphlets and pens. She loved standing at the mirror hung from the bathroom door. She would just smile at herself and shriek with joy. The toilet was a fascination as well for some reason, so we tried to just close it off by shutting the door, but that didn't work because the bathroom door did not have a lock, so she was able to push it open.

And, she learned how to open a door for the very first time all by herself! Yippee! And, believe me, that "Yippee" has a sarcastic tone to it. I am not looking forward to this new found freedom! That was the worst door she could possibly have ever learned to open too. Not only did this door open to the parking lot, but it was built so that if the handle was pulled down, the lock on the door would also release. There was no way to lock Annabelle into the motel room (besides the metal chain at the top of the door), so she was under close supervision the entire time!

After Annabelle's play time in the motel room, we were off to Fatz Cafe for dinner. We found Fatz Cafe in our AAA Tour Book. My husband and I split the Carbonara Pasta, and we ordered a kid's chicken fingers meal for Annabelle. I have now officially vowed to never order Annabelle another meal off of the kid's menu until she is old enough to tell me what she would like to eat. I thought for sure she'd be thrilled with fried chicken fingers, but she wasn't! She finally decided to try one, and she did manage to get one chicken finger in her tummy, but that was about it. She enjoyed some of my pasta though (and one mushroom)! I also opted for steamed veggies (carrots, broccoli, zucchini and squash) instead of the french fries for her with her meal, and that was a mistake! I was trying to get her to eat healthy, but instead, she just barely ate anything.

For dessert, we ordered their famous Peach Cobbler, and we split it among the three of us. It was good, but I personally don't think it was all that. Before the dessert arrived, Annabelle had already decided that she was finished eating (she had removed her bib and given it to us). So, when the dessert did finally arrive, my husband said, "I bet you are wishing now that you hadn't decided you were finished eating." Of course, we still gave her some dessert as she asked very nicely! "Peeeaaaassss!"

The waitress was a very sweet young girl. She must have liked us because she said "the dessert is on me since this was your very first time at Fatz Cafe." Of course, that meant the dessert was on the house of course!

It was 8:30 p.m. by the time we were all in the car ready to leave Fatz Cafe. When we got back to the motel, Annabelle was wired! She was jumping off the interior motel walls once again (or at least it seemed). I read "Goodnight Moon" to her for her bedtime story, and when I read the part about "and the cow jumped over the moon," she stood up on the bed, and she started jumping up and down. She would not stop jumping until it was time for her to nurse. I think she actually got her feet up off of the bed when she jumped this time though. Of course, jumping on a bed and jumping on the floor are completely different obstacles! So, I guess I really cannot say that she is "jumping" now.

We finally got her calmed down a bit, and I nursed her and laid her down for the evening at 9:30 p.m. She fell asleep around 10:15 p.m.

Unfortunately, this was truly a motel room, so we all slept in the same room, and we really had no way to entertain ourselves after Annabelle went down for the evening because she was sleeping in the very same room as us. We didn't even watch any television!