Shopping. Not as bad as I feared.

We were going shopping at the Tucson Mall today so I suggested to Lori that we sleep in and take a nice long walk with Charli followed by a leisurely breakfast.  She bought in so I figured I'd saved myself at least 2 hours of mall walking.  During our morning walk we met a lady from one of the RVs across the road.  They are from BC and live full time in their Motorhome.  She's been to Tucson a number of times and has never been to any of the malls.  Now I didn't think that that was genetically possible.

Our first stop was at Total Wine.  We had been told that this was the place to get your liquor.  Picture this.  Your average size Safeway store all filled with liquor.

Now I'm not a big drinker but the selection and the prices were something to behold.  Here is an example.  An aisle approximately 30 feet long and 5 rows high, both sides, all with different kinds of Vodka from around the world.  I didn't know there were that many different kinds of Vodka.  Prices ranged from about $8. for 750ml to over $100.  Each different type of liquor and wines had a similar selection.  We managed to find a couple brands of wine that are also sold at home.  $4.95 here, $14.00 at home.  We got our cart filled up and headed out the door to our next stop, Home Depot.  Hey this shopping stuff isn't so bad.

Got a couple items for the trailer and by this time Lori was getting impatient.  On to the Mall.  The Tucson Mall is pretty big.  I'd say about double the size of Polo Park which is the biggest mall in Wpg.  Lori wanted to find a directory to locate the stores she was interested in.  I suggested we just walk up and down until we saw something interesting.  I figured I owed her after all the time we spent at HD and Total Wine.  Always good to bank those brownie points.  She like the idea so off we went.

Now usually when I go shopping I take the direct route to what I want, on to the checkout and back to the truck.  Lori on the other hand is more of a ZigZag shopper.  Today however she was focused on only a few things and we hardly stopped anywhere to just look.  I was so impressed.

Our final stop was at Dillard's to get a purse.  I have one wallet, have had it for years, still works great and will probably have it for along time.  Its black, goes with everything I own and never goes out of style.  Don't know why this thought process doesn't work for women.  Lori has lots of purses.  Different colours, sizes and styles.  She avidly supports Lugg but for some reason its got to be Vera Bradley now.  I'll say this.  They certainly are colourful.  I had to pay for it as it apparently is her Christmas present.  Well that wasn't so bad.  In fact while I was in line to pay she found a wallet that matched the purse.  She took a look at the price tag, cringed and put it back.  I was so proud of her.
Shopping was done in well under 2 hours and I was also done Christmas shopping.

When I was paying for the purse I used my US Visa card with is issued by my Canadian Bank.  After swiping the card I had 2 options.  I could pay in US $s or opt to pay a higher amount but in Cdn $s.  Since its a US $ Visa card I chose the US option.  I had never seen this before and asked the cashier.  She said its a recent enhancement. The system recognizes my card as being from Canada and offered me the option to pay in Cdn $s.  She said it will do the same for Mexican customers so they can pay in Pesos.  Thats an interesting option although not sure what kind of exchange rate they are using. Now if the US would just get with the times and start using the chip and tap technology.

Off to Sweet Tomatoes for and early supper before some grocery shopping and home.  Faye and Garry had suggested Sweet Tomatoes and it was another winner.  Its an all you can eat buffet with salad and soups being their claim to fame.  The food was great and we got in for the Seniors rate at $7.49 per person.

They need bigger plates although I could have gone back for refills.

 Yum Yum good.  Also had a couple small bowls of soup.  In addition to soup and salad they had Pizza and various pastas and for dessert....

Chocolate Mousse and a make your own soft ice cream sundae, which is what I chose.












We got home and guess what, it started to rain.  Well not exactly rain, more like intermittent spitting.  It had been cloudy all day and apparently it had been raining higher up in the atmosphere but because the humidity is so low, under 20% most days, it evaporates before it gets to the ground.  Today, apparently the humidity had risen all the way to 24% so the rain was actually getting all the way to ground level.
Tomorrow Lori and Faye are going to get their hair cut and I'm off to give Charli a bath and do a few chores around the campsite.    
Later.