Last week, Kathy and I met in Columbia for a girls’ day out. We like to do that whenever we can make it work with both of our schedules. It’s about a 1.5-hour drive for each of us and we get to spend an entire day together. We always have a good time and have never yet run out of things to talk about. We’ve got the routine down:
(1) Meet around 10:30 a.m. in Columbia at the intersection of I-70 (my road) and US 63 (her road) where there’s a big Bob Evans/Steak ‘n’ Shake parking lot. We leave one of our cars in the parking lot for the day.
(2) Eat lunch or breakfast, whichever seems right.
(3) Browse through the downtown stores in Columbia. Sometimes we actually purchase something, but most of the time, we just look at things. This time, our browsing led us to an interesting T-shirt. (We didn’t buy it.)
(4) After purchasing some hand-dipped gourmet chocolates at the Candy Factory downtown, go to the Columbia Mall food court for a beverage to accompany the chocolates and a few hours of talking.
(5) Select a restaurant for dinner and a few more hours of talking.
(6) Return to the car in the Bob Evans/Steak ‘n’ Shake parking lot around 9:30 p.m. and leave for our respective homes.
One of our favorite dinner spots is Shakespeare’s Pizza, a family-owned pizza parlor. Shakespeare’s is always busy, and recently expanded into a huge space. That was our choice for this girls’ day out.
While standing in line to order our pizza, we had time to read the “Pool Rules.”
The yellow brick road is present in all of the 6 dining rooms and leads patrons to the rest rooms. When it’s necessary, just follow the yellow brick road.
We ate in the first dining room this time, but I think it might be the noisiest. You can see that Shakespeare’s is a happening place.
After another great day together, it’s time to head home. The time always goes too fast for us.