Tina and I decided to take advantage of having Bev in town to head over the border to do some shopping and enjoy some good food in Detroit without the boys. Jeremy was at Lorelie's, so Bev got to spend some time with Corbin.
We headed out of the house around 8:30. The bridge was full but we didn't have to wait too long when two more booths opened. I asked the bridge personnel if I could scoot over and she said yes. So what could have been a 45 minute wait turned out to be a 15 minute wait. Welcome to America.
Fifteen minutes later were pulled into to the IHOP at Middlebelt and I-96. The parking lot had lots of vehicles so we were expecting to wait. But we were fooled - we had a table in no time. Tina ordered the carrot cake pancake, scrambled eggs, hash brown and bacon combo. I ordered the same save for blueberry pancakes. The breakfast was fresh and hot. And the coffee carafe meant that we had a good supply of hot coffee.
Back on I-96 then I-275, we arrived at the already busy IKEA Canton at Haggerty and Ford. The store opens at 10:00 AM. We arrived at 10:15 and people were already loading their vehicles with furniture. Aye carumba.
We browsed, made some mental notes for the future and noted the location of the furniture we wanted to buy. In the Marketplace, we picked up some hangars, a magnet board for Jeremy and few other odds and ends.
In the warehouse, we picked up three pieces of furniture: A MALM 4-drawer chest (medium brown, $99US vs $129CDN) for Jeremy´s room, a Stockholm coffee table (golden-brown $179US vs $279 CDN) for the living room and a bookcase, Expedit (birch effect, $89US vs $99CDN), to be used on its side, for the front door.
Tina was not sure if we should buy the furniture, but I said it is cheaper in the US and we will still be ahead after paying GST and PST. So we headed to the checkout, handed over the credit card and loaded up the van.
We drove down to the new Target in South Canton. There we bought shirts and shorts for the boys, a DVD and a few other things. At Old Navy, Tina bought a few things for the boys. We were done shopping. It was time to eat, again. Our choice was Ruby Tuesdays, just down the road from the Target. Tina and I ordered burgers. They were hot and tasty.
It was time to make our way back to Canada, but first we had to fill the van with some duty-free gasoline. Both sides of the bridge were busy. It took us about 20 minutes to get through Canadian Customs. We declared our purchases in full and, much to our surprise, we were free to go. Tina was shocked.
On our way back home, we stopped at Tim Hortons to get a coffee for Bev. It was a ´thank you´ for watching Corbin. It was a good day for all.
Posted by Adam
