It was kind of quiet at home during the Victoria Day weekend.  Nanzaro was away at camp (again!).  He just enjoys camping.  Home is different without him around bugging everyone.  He has this knack of interrupting people with random chat when everyone is in the middle of doing something … like when his older brother is 4-6 down with 2 minutes remaining on NHL09 on the PS3 … or mum waiting anxiously for Jeff Probst to announce the next elimination of survivor, … or a knock on the bathroom door when Dad’s in there with the notebook.  As annoying as he is, we missed him.

Mum thought that we go out for breakfast instead of making it.  We know Arkensen will like the Slam from Denny’s.  So we went.

The closest one we know of require a drive over the bridge on SW Marine Drive.  It is a really busy stretch of road by amidst all that, the restaurant is located on a nice grassy patch.  The property is well maintained, I say.

It is something about breakfasts in these places like Denny’s.  I never had any problems with service.  Not here too.  It’s something that there is a certain cheerfulness the moment you get greeted as you walk in.  A “good morning” you hear from Denny’s sounded a lot different from the “good mornings” that I get in the office.

A good cup of coffee is absolutely necessary.  In Denny’s the coffee is pretty good.   They have a brand for it — can’t remember what the name was.  Seems like they stand by their coffee and know that a great cuppa is a very important menu item for them.  It was just the way we like it … a detectable bitterness with bold strong taste.  The best thing is certainly the free refills.

I must say that as good as Denny’s coffee is, my favourite is still the Arosta coffee in Shari’s.  Why doesn’t Shari’s open outlets in BC?  WHY?!?

I know what Arkensen wants.  He wants the biggest, meanest Slam breakfast.  He initially chose the All American Slam until I pointed out to him the biggest one is the Lumberjack Slam ($11).  Well, it’s more expensive and therefore it should be bigger.  He agreed with my logic.

There is ham.  There is bacon strips.  What else?  Sausages, hash browns.  Oh … the all important eggs.  Talking about eggs, I wanted to share with everyone our episode a few years back in a visit to IHOP on something about “well done eggs”.  Suanne forbid me to share that so I will not.  If you are curious enough, you ask her OK?  It was so funny but I dare not provoke the wrath of the cook of the home.

The Lumberjack Slam was good as expected but really the sausage had no taste … none at all … non, nyada, nyet, nein … zilch.

The Slam came with buttermilk pancakes and toasts.

The plain pancakes were nothing to shout about — edible when drowned in syrup.  The toast however was really good.  I know it’s just toast but it’s just good.  Sometimes simple things are the best … you agree?

Dad had the Scramble … the Heartland Scramble.  The Scrambles is like the scrambled egg version of the Slams.  My habit is to read as I eat breakfast … I always read at breakfast.  So, I did not pay much attention to the food.  I remembered it was a lot of food though but nothing memorable as one might expect.

The pancakes for the Scrambles are better than the Slams.  It has strawberry.  That is mum’s … she digs these type of sweetish stuff.  She also took a little from my plate and Arkensen’s.

Total bill was $30 before tips.  Nice meal as always.  We still don’t know what the sausages were tasteless.