PANcakes!

PANcakes...that is what one youth touring Sea World was so adamant about earlier this week.

This young girl of about 7 years who was accompanied by at least 30 of her peers while, I assumed, on a field trip to the sunny San Diego, Calif., hot spot was carefully tip-toeing along the narrow curb separating the walkway from the grass and flowers adjacent to an exhibit. A little farther down, a maintenance crewmember was digging around a sprinkler head, the sharp blade of of the shovel tearing into the moist grass, exposing the cool, dark earth beneath.

I'm almost certain what he heard next. The volume was rising, and suddenly ...

"...PANcakes!!!" The girl shouted, piercing our ears and I'm sure the still-growing drums of her playmates.

Our guess is she wanted her point to be known. The children around her were telling their stories, and each child chimed in at a slightly louder pitch until all we heard was something to make us hungry for breakfast.

Mmmm. Pancakes!