While Monday's border shopping trip started with a headache (literally - I slept horribly Sunday night), it went well. I was awake by 5:30 am and we were on the road by 7:30 am. I would have loved to slept longer but I have a daycare child that arrives early, plus needed to get all 3 kids ready so my husband just had to drive them to school later.
Instead of driving along the 401 and down to the QEW, we exited and drove along Kingston Road to Woodbine, down to the lakeshore and onto QEW. Was it really quicker than the 401 in morning rush hour? I dunno... but I was not the driver. In fact, although I expected to drive at least half the trip, dad wanted to drive the entire time. Retired TTC driver - I think it's hard to lose control of the wheel.
We arrived at usaddress by 10 am. Two and half hours of driving during rush hour. It was a short trip as we were home by 3:15 pm (1 3/4 hrs back).
Dad had one package to pick up. My mom's Kindle Paperwhite e-reader. Which I like so much better than my Kobo! I had two packages. Or should I say, I was suppose to have two! One of my packages had not arrive!
My husband ordered a bunch of books and we paid extra to have it arrive by Friday. Hopeful that it might still show up I said I would drop in again before we went home.
Went to Wal-mart to pick up my order and did a bit more shopping. I have to say dad's presence really restrained me. I could hear his voice in my head questioning everything I picked up. Perhaps that was a good thing. In the end I came home a couple of Wii games I could not find here; a Skylander Giant for my son; rechargeable batteries ($7 cheaper); complete set of color & black ink ($28 cheaper!); red/white/black Mickey head washcloths; angry bird graham cookies; honeymaid grahamfuls; cinnamon teddy bears; M&M's; and
every single container of Green Machine Naked Juice in stock.
I love Naked Juice! I really wanted to stop at Tops and Target for more Naked Juice - but again, I could hear dad's voice muttering about needing all that juice in my head. No wait... this time it was for real!
Disappointed his grandson he did. My son keeps trying to hide the juice on me since I was only able to snag 7 bottles. However I did purchase a 1.89L of Blue Machine. Never knew Naked Juice came in large sizes.
Blue Machine is tasty - should have bought more!
In case you're wondering, in the fall I found I could order/purchase Naked Juice at Starbucks at $3.99 a small bottle. Wal-mart sold it for $2.48 same bottle!
Yeah, I really wanted to get more before heading home! Ah well - next time.
Next was lunch, at the Olive Garden of course. I ordered the portebello mushroom stuffed ravoli and found it came with unlimited soup & breaksticks. Dad only wanted soup, and my breadsticks. Their chicken & gnocchi soup is delicious! I restrained myself to 1 bowl and 1 breadstick. I was saving some room for one of their delicious looking desserts. But again, there was this distinct muttering coming from somewhere...
Sigh - I didn't really need the calories anyways, right? I was amazed lunch only cost $20 including taxes! Well, $25 including the tip. The Olive Garden was offering a free $5 gift card with every $25 gift card purchased. Wonderful! I told our waitress I wanted $50's in gift cards (I'll be back) until I was told the extra $10 free gift cards expire sometime next month. Well, forget that then as I won't be back until fall - I hope.
We missed the Supermarket liquor store but ended up at Larry's where dad purchased a 1L of Malibu coconut rum for $25.
And yes, we were stopped when dad declared the rum! And holy heck! Like I said, dad was prepared to pay duty & tax AND PAY HE DID! $4.09 in duty - fine. $3.74 gst - fine. $17.22 for a provincial liquor mark-up fee???
So that $25 bottle cost another $25.05 at the border for a whopping $50! BTW, a 1140 ml (which is over 1L) can be bought here for $35. I checked. Shhh, don't tell my dad.
Oh, and yes we stopped at usaddress on the way back to Canada. And no, no sign of those books! IF the books show up by Friday, then we may go back in February with the kids and spend a night at one of the waterpark hotels. I e-mailed usaddress this morning though, and so far the books are still not there. If still not by Friday, then I guess I'm making my first credit card dispute. Anyone do this with Visa or AMEX? I forget which one the charge went on.
Whew, I can't believe how long this post! LOL - sorry.