Today we took an impromptu trip to Gaithersburg, MD which is about 45 minutes from our house and one of the towns I grew up in (I was an IBM kid). The main purpose was to go to Lake Forest Mall to visit Noah's Pretzels b/c they offer GFCF ones there. Here's the link/story behind the shop (whose co-owner has a son with autism): http://www.noahspretzels.com/
We hit the pretzel shop first and introduced Matthew to the employees and ordered his special pretzel. They asked if I wanted to put a picture of Matthew on the wall (along with the other ASD kids who have visited there) and I said "sure!" and just happened to have one handy. (I brought a pic b/c I heard thru the grapevine that they would post it.) The sweet young lady (who said her 8 year old brother has autism so I'm thinking she is the owner's daughter) taped it right above the Time Magazine cover so if you look over Matthew's head here you will see his placement on the "wall of fame". We then took the pretzel to our next stop Red Robin for lunch. Supposedly their fries are GFCF so I let Matthew have a few along with the pretzel (which he liked but wasn't really sure what it was) and the food I brought for him. 
After lunch, we rode the glass elevator and played in the middle of the mall. Matthew loved watching the elevator from the play area and all was good until an older kid body-slammed Matthew into the glass retaining wall and Matthew hit his head/back. The boy's mom apologized and told her spun-up son to go sit on the sidelines. Matthew was fine but shaken up so we left and went across the street to Marshall's.
After shopping, we went down the road to my old elementary school where Matthew climbed the stairs twice and briefly played on the playground. I had to add this pic so you could see the stairs the crazy builder made when designing the school. I started there in the 3rd grade and remember having to go up and down those stairs in the rain, snow, heat...what a work-out (especially for the kindergartners)! * You can click on the pics to make them larger.
After the school, we drove by my old house. It looks basically the same but the trees in the neighborhood have matured. I moved there when the neighborhood (and actually the whole area of Montgomery Village) was only a couple years old...I remember everything being so new and "modern" for the late 1970's. (Hard to believe that was 30 years ago!)
4 comments:
Glad you made it to Noah's and showed them some love and got Matthew on the Hall of Fame. I've been thinking about sending them a picture of Helena for the wall.
Sorry about the mall play area. We don't let our kids play on the one here because of the older kids - even though you're supposed to be 6 and under.
Did you try a piece of the pretzel?
Thomas
Yikes about the incident in the play area! I'm glad Matthew was okay. Did you notice what a dump Lakeforest has become? Too bad--it used to be a nice mall.
Ahhh...the good ole stairs! Do you remember running down them after lunch to play tag in 6th grade? Fun times. :o)
I wasn't in town this weekend, but next time you make a G'burg visit, let me know!
What fun! That sounds like such a great day you too had and how great to get to order him something that was GF/CF at a mall!!
Cool! You actually tried Noah's pretzels! What did you think of it. That is one thing I have missed being GFCF and haven't tried to make yet!
Post a Comment