The kiddo had this Friday off from school, so I took a day off from work as well. I love when we have opportunity to just hang out together. The thought was that we’d go to a movie and just enjoy the day. Which we did. But it ended up being jam-packed with more stuff (good stuff!) than either of us had imagined. Spontaneity!

Since we rarely get a chance to go out for breakfast, we made a plan to start things off with an outing. That meal can be the worst for me with my gluten-free issues. Pancakes, french toast and waffles are my traditional breakfast faves. And there aren’t a whole lot of places that serve up GF versions of those just yet.

We usually go to Marie Catrib’s where I nosh on their awesome sweet potato pancakes. But in my past searches, a highly recommended, but not really close by, restaurant kept popping up. Anna’s House offers quite a few GF menu items. It’s way up north, though, so we hadn’t gotten around to it yet. Yesterday was the day. I’m glad we did. I really liked the red velvet pancakes. Better yet, they’re soon to open a second location just five minutes away. Booyah!

After breakfast we shopped a bit (at Meijer…locally founded national grocery store chain!) and then headed over to the 11 a.m. showing of Spider-Man 2 (at Celebration Cinema…local theater chain!)

Then we went downtown to collect our race packets for the Riverbank Run (which, by the way, Dev and I ran this morning – more on that later). By then it was 2:30 and the popcorn high had worn off. So we decided to scope out a downtown eatery for a late lunch. He loves the mac ‘n cheese at Rockwell-Republic, so we grabbed a seat by the window and relaxed for a bit.

We then visited a local pharmacy (excitement!) to get a new prescription for our adorable diabetic-arthritic cat, Finn. And on our way home, we enjoyed one of the ultimate local GR experiences: the Downtown Market. We left with our usual Dorothy & Tony’s cheese popcorn (Dev is smitten), but also had the chance – finally! – to try Love’s Ice Cream. I like most ice cream, to be honest. But this really was an awesome dish of creamy goodness. Flavored with Madcap coffee. Oh, my, my!

My son has far more restraint than me. He always goes for the healthier gelatos and sorbetos when possible. In this case the triple berry sorberto. (He went with lemon gelato when we visited Eataly in Chicago last month.)

What was going to be a simple movie-then-hang-out-at-home day turned into a bit of an adventure. A delicious one!