Our first stop was a darling little coffee shop that serves delicious waffles--and how about waffle charcuterie, yes please! The ingredients tasted fresh and legit, not cheap. My favorite was the fruit compote, chocolate chips, and fluffy whipped cream. Oh, and they had Valentine special drinks--I got a Love Shot, a raspberry chai! Yummmm!
We decided to take as many pictures as we could, and to work on our selfie prowess . . . it's still a work in progress, ha! Waffles get TWO pictures; they were that good!
Next, we went to a vinyl shop down the road--I thought it was a trendy retro place, but it turns out it has been there forever! At one of our five eye appointments on our seven-appointment day, the receptionist told me how, as a teenager, she'd walk down to the record store after work when new albums were released (or she'd call and have them save one until she got there). It was the same place! We don't actually own a record player, but it was fun to look at some of the vinyls (and CDs) we had as kids and teens--and a few we wished we'd had. I found the She's Too Fat Polka, what?!
Next we went into a retro toy store . . . it was massive! Toys from every year of our childhoods and beyond. We both found our elementary school lunch boxes on display, right there next to each other ($40 plus each, which is funny because Brennen pondered the other day, "I wonder what stuff we should be keeping that will be really valuable someday." :) Well, we could have saved our CareBears and RainbowBrites and my brother's He-Man (they had the one with the crush chest that rotates!) G.I. Joe, Ninja Turtles, Cabbage Patch, one thousand Barbies, oodles of memories with price tags on every shelf! I spotted a Papa Smurf glass, which I'm pretty sure was a McDonalds happy meal item 35 years ago, and was instantly transported back to seeing it in my kitchen cupboard. I could even tell you which shelf it was supposed to go on! Crazy!
Our next stop was a Christmas shop--I'm not sure how they stay in business when it is not Christmas. Inside, down the aisle, there was a little gift shop of locally made/inspired items, which tricked us by having its own entrance around the block. I looked in the window and said, "That's the same lady!" Ha, it would have been weird to show up again in her section from a different direction. We took two selfies for the two stores (not really, but it looks like Buck is wearing an elf hat in the second one, so I had to include it :)
We continued to look more bedraggled as the day went on--the rain kept on falling, but it wasn't terribly cold. Buck said it was like being back in Ireland on our honeymoon . . . not quite, but a sweet observation :) Next, we stopped into a little candy shop; I didn't even know it was there! They were bringing out fresh trays of goodies, so they must be making them in the kitchen somewhere. Clearly a big day for a homemade candy shop, that little store was packed!
We did some outdoor selfies, too! You get a picture of our "usual" attempt and a "not-so-bad" attempt :) It was nice seeing some green foliage in the winter.
We walked a block over and a couple blocks up to visit an old, old bookstore that I've been curious about checking out. It was . . . interesting. I expect an old bookshop to be enchanting, delightful, attention absorbing! This one smelled funny, not a good funny. There were the typical stacks of books everywhere and nooks and crannies galore, but not quite as charming as the bookshop I assembled in my puzzling adventure earlier this year :)
I might have missed a couple stops, but we tried to keep up with our photos :) We debated coming home or driving farther out to find a little British shop I'd heard about. After some discussion, we compromised and picked a place in between, because I wanted to bring home cupcakes for the kids for a Valentine dessert after dinner. Well, as we walked up to the cupcake shop--another bookstore got right in our way! This one was newer and soooo much cleaner. It turns out the books were also used, ahem, "Gently pre-read in almost new condition." But they were cheap, and that was great! I also bought a puzzle that was cheap, because I'm guessing it too is "gently pre-built." That kind of grosses me out, but we'll see what I think when I open the box :) No pics in there, but we did take an important safety precaution after the cupcake shop--given the wet weather and all ;)
We did find the British shop, but were kind of disappointed in it, so didn't take any pictures (although the queen in the window display next to a red phone booth might have been amusing--but it was still raining). We bought some frozen meat pies and some Digestives (cookies that I enjoyed in Ireland) and a bit of Cadbury's chocolate from their limited selection. We had hoped to grab hot food as a snack, but that didn't work out, so we found an Ahi Sushi Ramen, etc. restaurant in the area. I ordered a couple of egg rolls and egg drop soup; Buck ordered Pad Thai and shared with me (and still brought a half-full box home!) The entire time we were there--they played one song over the speakers . . . "I want something just like this--bum, ba-da-dum, bum--something just li-ike this . . ." We nearly went insane. Good food, though!
Upon arriving home, we decided not to make dinner, but to order Valentine's pizza from the gas station--the best! It was delivered about the same time Brennen arrived home from work. We ate our pizza, then headed downstairs to watch the first two Maze Runner movies (who forgot they were about zombies?, oh yeah, that's me raising my hand)! We took a zombie break and broke into the cupcakes and candies and British dessert things.
Noah joined us after he finished working. Gabby and Chase had plans elsewhere, but Caelan said Gabby stopped by with some Valentines while Buck and I were out on the town. Graysen also chose sweet treats and cards to put on the Valentine table at breakfast-time. And of course, we opened our red envelopes from Grandma J and cheered for a restock of Starbucks gift cards :) I'd say it turned out to be a pretty happy Valentine's day 💖
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