A "Rosa and Gilbert" Day!!!!

Hi There!

Well, I had decided to take Friday off (yesterday) and Gilbert and I planned on going to Bangor, Maine, for the day. Bangor's about 3-1/2 hours drive from here. I figured that if we left REAL early, we'd have time to do some shopping and come back before it got dark. *grin*

Well, we left our home at 6h30 a.m., grabbed ourselves a Tim Horton's coffee, got some gas, stopped at the bank in St. Stephen, just before crossing the border into the USA... then decided to grab a 2nd coffee at Duncan Donuts, in Calais and head out, on our way to Bangor.

Gilbert had never been to Bangor. I had been there two or three times MANY moons ago and then, twice in 2008. I KNEW there were a LOT of stores there and wanted a "get-a-way" trip, with my hubby.

Our first stop was "Marden's". Marden's is actually in Brewer, which is just across the river from Bangor. It's a surplus and salvage store. We must have spent at LEAST 1 hour there... browsing and picking up stuff.

Gilbert bought mostly household and men items. Me, I bought mostly sewing stuff.
(will post pictures of our buys in an upcoming blog.... soon.)



From Marden's, we went to the "Dollar Tree". We don't have any "Dollar Trees" in our city. Mind you, we have other kinds of dollar stores, but here we picked up a few other items too.

Then, since we have our GPS's with us and we have hoped to find the time and the opportunity to grab a couple caches, we decide to try this one, called "Fake Trees Need Water Too".

I LOVE geocaching - you get to see some neat stuff, sometimes!

Anyhow, we saw this "tree" but unfortunately it was too cold and we tried for a good 10 minutes and didn't find this cache. But that's okay, we got to see this really neat tree, eh?
LOL
(see my yellow car, in the background?)

From there, we went to the Olive Garden. It was around 12h15, Maine time and there was NO PLACE to park! The place was FULL!

So, I suggested that we go to "Burlington Coat Factory", nearby.

OMG, but there's a LOT of clothes there and "stuff" and all at EXCELLENT PRICES, too!!!!

Gilbert picked up a nice winter coat - he needed one - for 30 bucks!

And I got 2 t-shirts and 2 pairs of boxer shorts, for my boys.

Well, we headed back to the Olive Garden. It was 1h20, by then, and we managed to find a parking spot but there was still a 20 minute waiting time, inside.

I had been to the Olive Garden before, but not Gilbert.

At one point, Gilbert whispered to me, "Is this really worth the wait?!??"

I assured him that it was! *VBG*

(NOTE: Gilbert and I RARELY wait for anything. Life's too short, IMHO, to wait FOREVER at a cash register, or at a restaurant, or whatever...)

Well, we FINALLY get a table and place our order.

Here's a picture of Gilbert and our salad. *s*

I had ordered the
"Smoked Mozarella Fonduta"

OMG... this was INCREDIBLE!!!

Lovely, melted cheese with just a hint of "smokiness" and a bit of spicyness, too!

Gilbert ordered a pasta dish, with cheese and
I got the angel hair pasta with a meat sauce.

And they bring you these INCREDIBLE mini breads, brushed with garlic butter and garlic salt!

Well, needless to say, we left there STUFFED!

LOL

From the Olive Garden, we went to "Best Buys" - a computer and techy store. Gilbert wanted to browse and browse we did! *grin*

And then, onto the US Post Office. I had a few parcels to mail. Mailing from the US is cheaper and faster than the Canadian Postal Service!

After the Post Office, we stopped at a convenience store - Gilbert wanted to pick up a couple USA lottery tickets.

We had wanted to go to JoAnn's and L.L. Bean, along with a couple other spots, but by then, it was getting late and we wanted to get home before dark. Remember? We had a 3-1/2 hour drive back home!

Well, once in Calais and just before we re-crossed the border back to Canada, we decided to stop at Walmart. I picked up 2 pairs of shoes, we got a LOT of snack items, a few more quilting thingies that I had forgotten to get at Marden's and Gilbert got himself a t-shirt.

Got home around 8h30 p.m., with LOADS of "stuff" to get out of our car!
*grin*

Once again, I'll blog soon, with pictures of what we got.

Saturday morning and the sun's shining - What a GORGEOUS day!

Hope you all have a "Gorgeous Saturday"!!!!

Rosa