Ed plans our roadtrips by looking for places to eat. He loves eating at unique places; I doubt he has set foot in an Olive Garden since 1989. On our way to the Smoky Mountains, we stayed in Berea, Kentucky. Weeks before our trip, Ed knew that we were going to eat dinner the Historic Boone Tavern Restaurant.

While sometimes it seems like it would be easier to stay by the hotel and eat at a chain restaurant that’s familiar, eating at a local place is a lot of fun. Shortly after we sat down at our table in the Boone Tavern, a server came over to give us our first taste of spoon bread. Neither Ed nor I had ever had spoon bread before. Yum!

When we went to my Dad’s house one Christmas, we thought it would be fun to spend a day at a water park. After spending the day at the Wasserbahn in Central Iowa, Ed informed my whole family that we were going to eat dinner at The Ronneburg Restaurant. Sure, bringing the girls to the water park was fun, but it was the German food Ed was really after. And he was right. The German food at The Ronneburg was outstanding.

North Platte, Nebraska was a stopping point during our drive from Chicago to Estes Park, Colorado. Ed arranged for us to have a hotel room with bunk beds for the girls, and we were going to eat at Whiskey Creek. He knew it was a chain, but the fact that we had never eaten there before made it a good choice.

This past summer, I decided to take a page from Ed’s book. Before our trip to Alaska, I asked my cousin where I should take Ed to eat for his birthday, and she suggested Simon and Seafort’s in Anchorage. I surprised Ed with a reservation and a table by the window. The hostess even sprinkled birthday ribbons on our table! As we were eating, we were able to look out at Cook’s Inlet and Mount Susitna, “the sleeping lady.” It was a wonderful evening!