So that's why I keep her around...

Once again, before I begin my story, let me reiterate how much I despise exercise...

So mom went for a bike ride yesterday (while I had my nose stuffed in Harry Potter). She rode a loop of bike paths through Lingolsheim and back to Holtzheim.
This morning, we knew we wanted to go and find the H&M we knew was hiding somewhere downtown Strasbourg (due to seeing people everywhere with H&M bags), but first she said she was going to ride again and asked if I wanted to come this time.
Since I somehow allowed my dad to make me feel guilty about not joining her on her bike ride yesterday (never again will guilt fill me for this), I agreed to go along...and now I remember why I dislike exercising.
After the ride, with a sore butt and excruciatingly painful elbows, I told my mom that it was good, for her to remind me why I hated working out. "It's nice of you to get me out and exercise...I might just think I enjoy it if I never do it!"

After recuperating from the treacherous ride (it really wasn't that bad. It was only an hour. My legs didn't hurt hardly at all. It was mostly my butt, and my elbows because I'm not used to low handlebars... and randomly I got a really awful inner-ear ache. Perhaps from the wind just whistling through my ears as I sped along! HAH!) with a yummy lunch, we hopped on the bus and headed downtown.
The centre commercial, mall, that H&M was hiding in was really easy to find, go figure. It's actually quite big, and mom and I had walked past it on several occasions, not even realizing what it is.
So we did some shopping (and purchasing on my end) and then met dad for dinner. Since we have been having such awesome weather, we decided to enjoy our last day of it (it's supposed to be cold and rainy for the next week) by sitting outside at a restaurant for dinner. We wandered down to Petite France, in search of two restaurants my dad had recommendations for by a friend at work.
We found the first one, but it seemed to be closed, so we moved on. We passed a souvenir shop, and I stopped in to get some postcards. As mom and I were wandering around the cute shop, dad was outside, looking at a menu. When we came out, he pointed it out to us and said we could try there. I looked at the menu and jumped on the idea.
Me being such a picky eater, it can be tricky to find a place I'll be able to find something to eat. But this place had at least four dishes I liked. So we decided to eat there, and save the recommendation for another evening.
The food was delicious! So delicious, in fact, that my oh-so-very-american-mother decided she HAD to take it home, because she just couldn't IMAGINE them throwing away something she could enjoy for her lunch tomorrow. I was none too pleased at the prospect of having to ask our waitress for a "doggie-bag". It was painful...and humiliating...and oh-so-very-american.