Michael Maloney invited me to his 2nd birthday party today. Lots of people were there to help him celebrate. The weather was great and the cake was awesome. I can’t believe he is another year older.
Kaili, my furry best friend, is 11 years old today. Each year we head out to the University of Waterloo to take picture among the flowers. Unfortunately for us, the flowers bloomed about a month ago. We didn’t stay out too long since it was pretty cold but we did manage to get a couple of birthday portraits.
Once we got up, had breakfast and got the car packed back up, we were on the road before 9am today. It wasn’t a far drive, actually it was just across the street to our first stop, the Christmas Tree Shops. We got there just as the doors opened and we were the first ones in.
On the other side of Cincinnati is the Cincinnati Premium Outlets where we stopped for about an hour. I can’t figure out how this mall stays in business. There was nobody there. We pratically had the mall to ourselves. Not too far from the outlets, we found the Olive Garden where we enjoyed lunch before settling back into the car for the drive home.
We made one final stop at in Woodhaven, Michigan for dinner at Panera Bread before heading back into Canada. The drive from Windsor to home is very boring but lucky for us we were able to shave some time and made it back by 9:30pm. What a great road trip.
As the title suggests, this was our day today.
In between all of the driving, we did manage to stop at the Calhoun Premium Outlets in Georgia. which has a Bath & Body Works Outlet. Remember, it’s not what you spend it’s what you save. We had lunch from a restaurant we’ve never been to called Zaxby’s. The place was packed which is a good sign for a restaurant. We also stopped at a Russell Stover outlet and picked up some chocolates.
We are staying at the Springhill Suites by Marriott ($98 USD) in Florence, Kentucky tonight. It’s a very funky, modern looking hotel.
Because the Oscars are on tonight, we picked up dinner from Famous Dave’s BBQ and headed back to the hotel to watch the show. I wonder what movie will be the big winner.
Everyone got a great sleep which is needed for our first day on the road. We decided that we would split the trip into three eight hour days of driving, along highway I-75. This would give us time for shopping in between the driving. We did some final packing and we left the house at 9:09am.
Our first stop for the day was the Ellenton Premium Outlets near Sarasota. It was really nice walking around the various stores in the beautiful warm weather, and enjoy some ice cream out in the sun. We each managed to pick up a few things but not too many since the car is already full.
The rest of the day was spent driving. Once we crossed into Georgia, we stopped at Big Rosie’s to pick up the mandatory pecans. Big Rosie (who is actually a guy) had freshly shelled and chocolate covered pecans along with pralines. He was very generous with the samples. I think it’s the samples that influenced our many purchases.
When it got dark, we decided to stop for dinner at Applebee’s in Tifton, Georgia. It was kind of cool, cool enough to put pants on but we didn’t based on principal. The temperature has dropped from 29 degrees to 9 degrees, but still warmer than at home. After fueling ourselves and the car, we got back on the I-75.
Tonight we are staying at the Residence Inn ($116 USD) in Macon, Georgia. We have a two bedroom suite with a fireplace. It’s quite nice.
