We drove up to Towson last week to attend a meeting of the animals at the Rainforest Cafe. Did you know the one in Tyson's Corner closed? Neither did I. Thank goodness for the Interweb, otherwise I would have driven all the way down into that circle of hell for nothing. There are at least three thousand, four hundred and thirty seven places I would rather go than Tysons Corner - especially on a weekend.

For those who haven't had the pleasure, the Rainforest Cafe is the closest thing to the Enchanted Tiki Room I've found this side of Disneyland. It's loud, crowded, kitschy and overstimulating. But they have pretty good food, so I don't mind heading out there every so often. The Dormouse enjoyed the Zebra that overlooked our meal and The Caterpillar met Mr. Face In The Tree, thought it was the best conversationalist she had met in six month and couldn't stop smiling, cooing and squealing at it. I'm pretty sure she wished it were one of her parents.

Like I said, the food is good there. Yummy deserts too. But about all I can stand of the place is one meal every couple of years. A couple of years ago, Monica and I went to Disney World and we tried to eat at the one they had at Downtown Disney. There was a three and a half hour wait. We said, "eh" and went somewhere else. Just a word of warning to all you destination Disney folks considering eating there. It's kinda a cool, but not wait in line for three hours cool. Especially if you bring kids (and if you don't bring kids, I'm not really sure why you're going there). Every half hour there's a "rainstorm", complete with thunder and lightning. The Caterpillar was unimpressed but The Dormouse, who is generally, very brave about things hid under my legs every time the rain started. I'm not sure what that was all about.

I tried to take one photo of everyone together, but with so much happening, it was almost impossible to get everyone to look at the camera all at once. Here are my attempts:


I guess a career as a professional children's photographer is out of the question.