Claire thought about it for a moment. "Can I have two most favorite places?"

"I don't see why not."

It took over an hour to see all the familiar spots. We stopped at Candy Kitchen, and watched while they slid a tray of marshmallow fudge out of the oven. The smell of chocolate was so delicious, we nearly fainted, but we decided to save our money for Ice-Cream Palace.

After we took a quick look at Fred's Putt-Putt Course and Hercules' Hot Dogs (the home of the foot-long hot dog), we ended up outside a souvenir shop. There were rows of Sea City T-shirts and shelves filled with mugs, sun visors, straw hats, and beach towels. Everything in the whole store had "Sea City" plastered over it — usually several times. I would have

liked to look at the postcards, but I knew the kids were restless.

"What next?" Mal asked. She knew her sisters were getting restless, too.

"Well, we can either walk over to the arcade, or we can save that for another day and head to — "I started to say.

"Ice-Cream Palace!" Claire and Margo yelled.

"Ice-Cream Palace!" Vanessa said, jabbing the air with her fist like a drum major.

"Ice-Cream Palace then," Mal said authoritatively.

I'm not really sure if Ice-Cream Palace has the best ice cream in the world, but it certainly seems that way. Maybe it's just because they have flavors you can't find in Stoneybrook. Sometimes they go a little too far trying to be different. (Would you really want to eat something called Banana Bubble-Gum?) But most of their stuff is great.

It always takes the younger kids forever to make up their minds, so we hung over the counter for ages. I decided on two scoops of Rocky Road Delight, since it has all my favorite things — chocolate, marshmallow, and peanuts. Mal chose a strawberry sundae right away. But Margo, Vanessa, and Claire hemmed and hawed for about ten minutes