Our Bonus Day

This morning, shortly after waking up after a good night’s sleep, I opened the curtains in our hotel room and saw a shopping mall just down the street. I checked on my phone to see if I could find out what stores might be in the mall. I didn’t recognize any, however, we’ve been looking for stores we don’t have in our neighbourhood at home and they seemed to be worth a look.

I also noticed an IHOP within walking distance. I suggested we do brunch there as our hotel room did not include breakfast. So, after a workout in the hotel fitness centre and once everyone was ready, we checked out of the rooms and left our luggage at the front desk.

We had a short wait because it was very busy at the Hop. The wait was worthwhile! We all had great meals. And, it only cost $US92.

We then started walking to the mall across the street. Along the way we came across a Collectable Sneaker Shop. I expected one or both of the boys to find something to their liking. But it was actually Laura that bought herself a nice pair of Nike walking shoes. I know now that every time she slips on those shoes she’ll have fond memories of my blunder.

We found several good stores in the mall and I think everyone bought something. We then walked to a nearby Costco. I always like seeing what Costco’s in different parts of the continent have to offer. Here the highlight for me was watching a Vitamix demonstration. We have one at home and love it, using it almost daily. The one being demonstrated was cool because it has built in Bluetooth and you can use an app on your phone to pick recipes and have the machine automatically mix the ingredients at the best speed and for the required time.

One more stop on our tour of the Queens area. Another mall about 1/2 km away. It had a Burlington. By the time we had finished inside that large store we were pretty much shopped out. The plan was to catch A cab back to the hotel. $US56 was a bit much so we walked.

We arrived just in time to gather up our luggage and hop on the shuttle. The driver was kind enough yo take us right to our departure terminal so we did not have to reboard the Airtrain.

Other than a bit of trouble checking in Aaron’s suitcase/skateboard combination which resulted in us having to pay to get his boards plastic wrapped, it was all good this time around. Now we just need to wait 5 hours for our red eye flight to Vancouver.

So ends another great family vacation.Read more