It was time to eat, we needed to choose a place and with several options on the floor. The lunch location was put to a vote. We had two votes for chicken and french fries and one vote for the puppy dog. The 2 year old who is fascinated and terrified of dogs really wanted to go to the puppy dog place... so with the cout standing at 3 to 1 - Raising Canes it was.

The only location so far is across from campus and that means it's crazy at lunchtime. The parking lot, which is large considering where it is, was packed. Inside it was packed too, but the Canes folks kept it moving - taking orders quickly, getting the tables bussed and the food to the tables fast really made all the difference.

With the choices being chicken or chicken, it made the deciding pretty easy for the kids. But when the food came - no sacks and no toys today. Usually they get stickers at Canes. But the chicken and "the weird sauce" made up for the lack of toys, I think.

The kids ate everything. I had to ask them to remember they also got chicken in their meals when they started on the second round of ketchup in the tiny paper cups. I think that they were excited about the lack of "colors on their plate," meaning no "extra" vegetables besides the fries. Refills on their drinks were easy for them to get. They could reach the fountain and that was impressive to me and to them - even the ones that had to go to the counter for lemonaide refills were able to get the attention of the staff and return to the table successful.

I think that they enjoyed being in the campus "hot spot" with all the cool college kids. It made them feel so big and the fact that they were able to be self sufficient made it even better. Next time the dog wins the "Where to Eat" vote, it will be a-ok with me.
- Mom

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907 University Avenue
Lubbock, TX 79401-2421
(806) 744-8552

For a cool treat on a really hot day, our mom took us to Bahama Bucks. My sister said that she had a coupon, but it expired like a year ago... the things that girl keeps in her purse! But we got a punch card and filled it almost half way up with just one visit!

MENU
They have snow cones, ice cream, smoothies, and even "sno balls." The flavors come in all sorts of types - including sugar free. My mom even got a cup of fruit!

TURNING TOUNGES
The flavors were all so good; we shared bites with each other. After a little while our tounges turned colors so we stuck them out but our omo wouldn't take a picture.

BRAIN FREEZZE
One thing you have to be careful about at Bahama Bucks is eating it too fast that you get a brain freeze. But if you do get a brain freeze, just stick your tounge on the roof of your mouth to warm it all up again.

OVERALL
You can't beat a great snow cone on a hot day and with all of the flavor choices, Bahama Bucks is great.

You can even get a party pack and take snow cones for your whole group... hint, hint - mom

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1708 50th Street, Lubbock, Texas 79414    (806) 762-1290
2515 82nd Street Suite #2, Lubbock, Texas 79423    (806) 745-7088
5009 50th Road, Lubbock, Texas 79413    (806) 281-1966
5814 4th Street, Lubbock, Texas    (806) 687-6320

http://bahamabucks.com/

When we checked in at the hotel we asked about a great place for seafood and, "Gaido's  - the Casey side - look for the giant crab," is what we were told. So we did and when we arrived we were greeted and seated right away - which surprised us considering we were visiting on a Friday of a holiday weekend.

We knew it was going to be an awesome place even before we walked in with their huge shrimp and crab on the roof - what a fun place!
Our waitress was so nice and brought us all kinds of things - even told us about her favorites and what other people liked the best too. She was really nice and brought us all kinds of things to try.

If you like seafood, you should really go there.

Recomended by a friend that lives in Houston, we stopped by Niko Niko's for drinks and dessert after a long day walking and riding the Metro over the downtown area. Here's what Clayton had to say about it:

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Market Square
301 Milam (at Congress)
Houston,
Texas
713-224-GYRO (4976)

Monday - Friday 7am - 9pm
Saturday & Sunday 8am - 9pm

http://nikonikos.com/

Atmosphere
Filled with American history and pop-cultural pictures and memoribilia, the place is fun just to look around. The sign that said, "Pig Lickin' Good" and the location on the Pecan Bayou made us curious enough to stop and give this place a try.
On a Sunday afternoon it wasn't too busy; we got a table right away. When we were leaving though, there were people everywhere - even enjoying the giant swing and rocking chairs outside on the porch.

Entertainment
When we walked in Addison asked the hostess if she really had to lick a pig at this place. After the chuckled and told her no, she asked if she could just get some peanuts instead. We got peanuts, color sheet and a table right away.
While we colored, we talked about all of the neat things on the walls like the "Texas Snow Boots" - they were cowboy boots on regular skiis - that was funny.

Menu
The kids menu was full of choices - more than just the usual hamburger and chicken. We all ordered something different, but Preston still got a hamburger - that's ok though. He said it was really, really good.

Price
For a sit-down restaraunt, the price was about normal. Plus, we got awesome frisbee's - they were our plates, but we got to take them home! That was awesome.

Service
Our waiter was really nice, but didn't come by much. We waited around for some stuff and shared drinks when we got too thirsty to wait. He did get us all some drinks that we could take with us though and that was cool.

Overall
It was a really cool place with lots to look at and talk about, good food with lots of choices, and the coolest kids plates that I've ever seen

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102 Early Boulevard
Early, Texas 76802 (Highway 377/67/84)
http://humphreypetes.com/

Our mom said that when she met dad, she lived in a house over behind Picantes. She and her roommates used to go to Picante's a lot. She took dad there when they started dating and (Hi-may) Jaime, the owner, even catered their wedding rehersal dinner! Jamie is so nice when we go eat there; he loves to see all of us and likes it that we enjoy his food!

Atmosphere
You don't go to Picante's for the atmosphere. It's a big open room - no color sheets or anything like that.

Entertainment
There are lots of things to look at and we like watching and listening to other people some too. Mom says we're not supposed to, but it's kind of neat.

Menu
The kids menu just has the normal mexican stuff on there - a variety of choices. Clayton loves the cheese enchilidas. Addison just gets rice and bean. Preston wanted a big bowl of queso (you can see it in the bottom of the picture) - sometimes I call it cheese sauce and the waiteresses look at me a little funny. Then I remember to call is queso.

Price
It's really good food and the price is about average for a sit down resturant.

Service
The waitress was really busy - there were so many people in the resturant for lunch. we wre patient for our drinks, but the food came out really fast. That was really nice.

Overall
The food is just
awesome. It's so good everytime we go there! We really like the chips and even
our baby brother likes the salsa.
It's fun when Jamie comes out and talks to
our parents. He knew them before they even got married and now there are lots of
us!

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3814 34th Street
Lubbock, TX 79410-2636
(806) 793-8304

For Father's Day our dad decided that he'd like to go to Carino's Italian. When we pulled up we were all a little upset when he told us that, "no, Carino's doesn't have chips & cheese sauce (queso) or rice and beans." After we asked for a table for 7, we learned that the wait was going to be 20-25 minutes.... not good at all. It felt like we waited forever, but after we ate we were glad that we waited.

Atmosphere
The open grill in the back where you can see the chef's cooking the food is awesome... the fire and the flippin' food was the best. You could tell it was an Italian place because of the fakes grapes, the wine and the music with no words - or at aleast no words I could understand. They even had wine bottles that were dressed up to look like a bride and groom. "Those were sooo cute!," said Addison.

Entertainment
They had color sheets where you could make words, color some chefs, and play tic tac toe. Watching the people cook the food was a fun thing to do too. While we were waiting we got some hot bread and awesome sauce. At first we didn't understand why they only brought one bread loaf for all of us, but our mom told us that we were supposed to tear off some bread and pass it around. While we waited, we talked to each other about church and vacation and our cousin that should be here soon.

Menu
Kids could order pizza with lots of topping choices, pasta with sauce choices, and a bunch of other choices that kids would like. The choice was pretty easy to make because we knew what we wanted to eat. For Preston the choice was even easier saying, "Clayton only read me two choices!" Two of us had pizza and two of us had spaghetti with tomato sauce.

The food was delicious. The pizza's were huge! It was amazing how big the plates were. Preston told us, "The noodles kept slapping me in the face. It happend like three times!" As Preston sucked the noodles in that last little bit, "jumped up and grabbed him," his brither said. Mom and Dad ordered really awesome stuff too. The grown ups had like a million choices on their menu.

Price
We could probally eat at McDonalds about 3 times for what it cost to eat at Carino's. The kids meals cost about the same amout, but the grown up meals were more. The food was like a thousand times better than McDonalds though.

Service
Our server was very pretty, Addison said. She was very helpful too, the boys said. She brought us lots of stuff like bread and drinks -a bunch of times -and other stuff like booster seats and napkins too.

Overall
Clayton said that he would definitly give it an A+ because it had the second best food I've even tasted - besides my mom's. Addison's favorite was the sauce on the pasta because the flavor spices were so good. Preston's favorite part was the big bowl of pasta - it was big and awesome. Trenton liked his food too because it was all gone super fast.

"All this talk about food makes we want to go back right now and get like a gallon of it!," said Clayton

More Information
http://www.carinos.com/
6821 Slide Road
Lubbock, TX 79424-1517
(806) 798-0944

IHOP is a fun place to go because you can have breakfast all day long! The funny faces they put on pancakes are cute.

We got to color and play games while we waited and you can see into the kitchen and watch them make the food. We all ordered the same kids pancakes and eggs and sausage. There were 5 pancakes! They have lots of different kids of syrup, but I  always pick the blueberry. It's the best.

My baby brother wore his boots with his shorts and thought it was funny to hop around at IHOP... silly brother

The Big Texan in Amarillo off of I-40 was a lot of fun. We went with my whole family - I mean my whole family too! We were there for our family reunion and there were 4 tables - probally 25 people there for lunch.

Atmosphere
There was so much to look at on the walls with animals and decorations - even the people that worked there were dress up like cowboys! There is s gift shop and an arcade, a huge rocking chair and even a fudge shop! There was so much to do. We stuck our faces through holes in a big photo board and made a funny picture outside by a huge boot that other people wrote their names all over.

Entertainment
There was a real cowboy walking around and singing songs to everyone - real cowboy songs.  He sang some fun silly songs for us, but my favorite song was "Deep in the Heart of Texas" when everyone in the whole resturant clapped their hands. It was really cool how everyone just knew how to do that.

Menu
There was a bunch of neat choices for kids - even the steak and BBQ! The kids menu looked like a huge hundred dollar bill! That was neat.

Food
There was a whole bunch of food. We had to take some of it back to the hotel even. I really liked the was that it came to the table in an iron pan. That was pretty cool.

Price
It cost more to eat there than most places we go, but my dad said that you pay for the fun of getting to go there too...

Service
There were a bunch of us there so it seemed like it took a long time to get all of our food and stuff, but we went and looked at all the stuff and listened to the singing cowboy to pass the time.

Overall
 It was a really fun place to go. It would have been ok with me to just go and look around and eat at some other place. All together though it was pretty fun.

- Clayton, Preston and Addison