THE KAPOK TREE

This photo from West Australia shows the flower of the Kapok tree. It's the first I've seen.

One of our favorite restaurants near Orlando, Florida, was the Kapok Tree. Although I haven't been there in years, it holds fond memories. Like one Sunday brunch when our son was about one and a half. He loved their muffins.

Sitting straight in a high chair, he reached for them on his tray, while we ate fried chicken, roast beef, potatoes, and a huge salad. Scott kept shoving the muffins in his mouth. Within reach was his tippy cup which he washed them down with.

I remember putting other food on his tray, but he would have nothing to do with any of it. Except the muffins.

We must have been in deep conversation or viewing the elegant looking restaurant, complete with huge Florida green gardens and lush flora, but when it was time to leave, full bellied as we were, we went to remove our son from his high chair, and that's when we noticed the floor.

He might have eaten a lot of muffins that day, but he squeezed, mutilated, and destroyed in crumbles an equal number that had found their way to the floor. I'm sure the restaurant had never seen such a carnage of spills. Probably intentional. Oh, we made an effort to pick up, but they were so shredded that we would have been there sans vacuum for the rest of the afternoon.

I never remember returning to The Kapok Tree. Maybe we decided there might just be a cleaning bill there for us on our return.