The Big Shopping
trip; US Thanksgiving Weekend, Erie Pennsylvania
Our last trip South of the border, this time for the
Thanksgiving Weekend in the States. Thanksgiving Black Friday is like Boxing
Day back in Australia, when all the bargains are on offer. So ourselves, the
Barnards and McMahons all decided to head down to Erie in Pennsylvania to do
some shopping. Why Erie you may ask?
- Mainly because it was somewhere new, we were told it has
some big malls and Pennsylvania doesn’t have any state tax, so it is cheaper
all year round than other states.
Chelle arranged to finish early on the Friday so we could
hopefully beat what we expected to be heavy traffic at the border. As it turned
out we were across in 30 seconds! However
it was at the border the fun began..... As I applied the park brake there was a loud
snap as the cable broke. The border guard heard it and Chelle was worried he
might mistake it for a gunshot and do something silly. Luckily he didn’t and we
moved on a little down the road and discovered the broken cable. So began our tentative drive to Erie ...2 hour
trip....
Anyway, we made it to Erie ok and got parked, ( luckily it’s
an automatic) First thing we noticed was that the rest of Ontario had joined us
to do the shopping. There were nothing but Ontario number plates in the parking
lot!! Once settled in, we met the others in the restaurant for dinner. The
motel had its own restaurant and bar where we had all envisaged having a
pleasant meal!!! The food here would have made truckstops look good; Kev had a
pizza that was the greasiest I have come across, Laureen’s sampler of vegies
tacos and other nameless morsels had been deep fried within an inch of their
life and the piece de resistance was Belinda’s garlic butter chicken wings,
that was a swimming pool of garlic butter with some wings floating precariously
amongst it. Our arteries were hardening
as we watched and attempted to drain the gallons of oil off our food before
eating reluctantly.(needless to say – much was left over)
Dinner put paid to the idea of relaxing in the tavern so
Kev, took the girls shopping to get Friday night bargains while Mick and I took
the kids back to the rooms to watch TV and play DS’s. The relatively late
night, meant a bit of a sleep in and before taking our lives in our hands and
trying breakfast. Yep breakfast wasn’t much of an improvement over dinner. I
did get to try grits however (some kind of spicy sausage gravy) and vowed never
to do so again.
After breakfast, it was hit
the shops and then after lunch the guys took the kids to Splash Lagoon
indoor water park. The kids had been looking forward to this part of the trip
ever since I had mentioned it and luckily it wasn’t a disappointment. The
afternoon for the kids was spent in and out of all the pools and slides at
Splash Lagoon. One of the many things
they do well in this part of the world is indoor water parks. I guess because
of the cold weather. Later that evening we met up with some foot sore and weary
women all shopped out after their big day and unlike the night before we had a
pleasant meal at one of the bar and grill places nearby called “Applebees”.
Sunday, after breakfast,
we left the others and set off early hoping to beat the rush at the border,
again our luck must have been in, because there were no lines and the wait was
less than five minutes. We had been anticipating hours, especially as we had
seen so many people from Canada with the same idea. Anyway, both us and the car
made it safely back home and we ticked off another weekend and good times with
new friends in new places. Our only
regret was that other Exchange families couldn’t have joined us in the
adventure and laughs....
Another weekend full of activity and one less to go.....
