Back From Vacation

We got back last night from our little trip. My Mom and I ditched, er, uh, left behind, our husbands and took my DS and went on a little trip. We went back to where we lived when I was five to see family and do touritsy stuff. Well, we got there and it was hot. And I mean HOT. It was hot here too, but it said it was 117 on the rear view mirror in my car. That is hot. We would go to our first touristy spot then we would see how far we had to walk to get to it and how hot it was, etc. and then we would go on to the next one and do the same thing.

We ended up going to two different grocery stores, Deal$ and to Goodwill twice. Boy, do I know how to live it up or what? We also visited with family a lot and kind of enjoyed our hotel room mostly. I had earned a free night with Hyatt hotels so we used that four our first night there. The bill was $300.00 for the next three nights, so we figured we might as well stay and enjoy it and get out money out of it. We blasted the A/C full blast. We stayed at an Ameri-Suites which is great because you have the bedroom area with two beds and the bathroom then you have a living area with a pull-out couch and a chair and coffee table. Then there is a kitchenette area with a mini fridge and microwave. They even leave service for four in dishes, glasses and silverware. In the mornings they have a huge FREE bountiful breakfast buffet of all sorts of fresh fruits, yogurt, pastries, bagels, sausage, eggs, homemade do-it-yourself waffle bar, juice, coffee, etc. Just tons of food. DS and I went down and got plates of stuff and brought it up to the room for all of us. I'm not a big breakfast eater so I would get yogurt and oranges to eat later. I did make one of those huge waffles once. It was good. On Wednesday nights the manager has a reception with free food too. They didn't have much but did have the hottest hot wings I had ever eaten, chips and dip and veggies.

We went to Goodwill twice. The first time I scored a great rubber face bunny girl doll from the 1940's-1950's. I had sold a rubber faced teddy bear similar to this several years back to someone in Japan for $287.00. I was pretty excited to find her. The market isn't that high anymore, but she might still make $100.00 Sadly, I am in love with her though. (Must sell, must sell...). The had an "antiques" section up front where they had items marked as OLD and priced higher. I saw a rubber elephant but it was $7.98 and it was more of a squeak toy that anything else so I passed. I noticed later a lady behind me at the knick knack section had it in her cart. later I spotted her behind me in the toy section and agian in the clothing section. She was following me! She never took her eyes off my bunny doll the whole time. I even laid her (the bunny doll - misplaced modifier there) down a couple times in front of me just to see the light in her eye shine like I was ditching her. Not! When we checked out she was checking out in front of us. She just kept looking at my bunny over and over. So, I know I got a deal. By the way, she was only $1.48.

I also bought a microwave popcorn popper that looks like a glass coffee decanter with a lid on it. We already tried it out today and it made great popcorn plus you can put the amount of salt and butter on it that you want instead of it being sooooo buttery and salty. That cost $1.48 too. It says you can make pasta, rice, baked apples and steamed veggies in it too. I also bought a carnival dog from the 1950's that is filled with sawdust for stuffing. Not sure if he is collectible or not, but he was cheap (yep, you guessed it, $1.48) so I bought him too. I know he is worth more than that.

We went to this great Dillon's store. I talk about my Dillon's on here a lot, but it is really small. This one was HUGE and had great stuff. The best part was in the deli they had a "Chinese Kitchen" where you could get authentic Chinese food to go. We bought some Crab Rangoon. They were 2/$1.00 and they were as big as my fist and so good. That could get addicting. When we were leaving I noticed the Lottery Kiosk so I stopped to get in on the Powerball. We don't have the lottery here in the Bible Belt of Arkansas so I have to get it when I am in MO, OK or KS. I also bought five $1.00 scratch offs and won back $2.00. Then I traded that in for one $2.00 ticket and won $10.00 on that. So, I doubled my $5.00 in less than three minutes. I wish I could have done that with a thousand instead! I used one of my FIVE FREE Cokes coupons and the checker didn't have a clue what to do with it. So, clueless coupon checkers are everywhere. That's a relief!

It seems when you are on vacation all you do is worry about your next meal. I often gripe about cooking and thinking of dinner here at home. But, it is a lot nicer than trying to decide where to go and what to have at a resturant a couple of times a day. Not to mention handing out cash for food all the time! We did go to the gorcery store and buy sandwich stuff and lots of snacks for the room. That's half the fun of travelling - snacks and bad TV!

Oh yeah, yesterday morning when we finally came down form the fifth floor and stepped outside to load up and go home we were very upset to find that the tepmerature was only 67 degrees! Argh. As we travelled home it kept rising until it hit 98 degrees. Today it is 77degrees so that is better.