When I realized what today was, my heart skipped a beat. NATIONAL PANCAKE DAY aka the day IHOP gives away a free short stack (3 pancakes) to anyone that enters their doors. Could it possibly be true? Could fluffy and syrupy goodness be mine for free? And to top it all off could I help a good cause in the process of feasting?

My roommate and I braved the bitter cold with thoughts of pancake and batter dancing in our heads. This year, IHOP picked the Children’s Miracle Network to support. So, after placing our pancake order we made a small donation to help save some of the millions of kids overcome with illness. This act makes us feel better about shoveling food into our mouth, after having already eaten a rather large dinner.

But with a wait of over an hour and being assigned ridiculous names (we were “Brad Pitt party of two”), the luke-warm, undercooked pancakes weren’t worth it. So I’m sorry, but even with the philanthropic goals in mind, IHOP’s free Pancake Day has nothing on Denny’s free grandslams (mmmm bacon bacon bacon).