Food has been a serious stumbling block on almost every trip we've taken. I can break it down into four problems--irregular/late dining, gluten-free, picky eaters, and small children in restaurants. Anyone of those problems can make everyone's life miserable. We basically solved them all this time.

I am borderline hypoglycemic and so are my kids. If we don't eat on time, we don't just get a little snippy, we have total melt-downs. We had a lot of meals on time thanks to relatives picking up the take-out or starting to cook before we arrived. And even though we had some meals quite late, no one freaked. I really don't know why. Maybe it was the dvd player in the car distracting them. Maybe it was the ice cream at 4:00. It's life changing not to be glued to a 5:30 dinner time.

We solved the gluten-free two ways: I packed a suitcase's worth of food, and the world has changed; you can actually find gluten-free food in most American cities. I packed banana chocolate chip muffins, cinnamon bread, plain bread, and two types of cereal. Turns out we didn't need the cereal because we ate fritos and potato chips at snack time, but we ate most of the rest of it. And we got gluten-free pizza in Carlsebad, g-f hot dog and buns at Legoland, and g-f bread at my aunt and uncle's local grocery store. It's a miracle.

The picky eater problem is our biggest triumph. After the last trip where Rose had meltdowns because she didn't like the bad amusement park g-f pizza, we started the semi-regular "family dinner." I'm sure I've written about this. Rose had to eat what was put in front of her. I don't want any snickering. This was a big change in our family. We still haven't made the switch for David. Of course, we picked foods we knew she would eat. We were just instituting the lack 'o choice concept. We also worked hard on the idea that it is a life skill to be able to eat foods that aren't your favorite. So/so is good enough. I also have to give Rose credit. She has been expanding her repertoire. So, she happily ate hot dog and bun, quesadilla, and liked the pizza. David was a little harder, but John convinced him to try some ham with lots of ketchup, and by Jove, it worked. I'm planning to offer ketchup at every meal.

We solved the restaurant problem by mostly not going. We got take out and ate it at my aunt and uncles or at the dining area of the hotel. We did eat in Ferrell's on the way home. Hey you Seattlite's, remember Ferrell's? It's the place you went on your birthday for 14 scoop ice cream sundaes, the big banging drum, great balloon animals, and much much hoopla. Julia and Dan found one on our route back from Legoland to my aunt and uncle's. It was everything I remembered. David must be getting older because he actually enjoyed the intense noise level. The food was fine, the kids colored and behaved, and they had ice cream. But it all took too long. John had to drive another hour at dusk in CA traffic. Next time we'll get take out fast food and keep moving.