Overnight Trip and a Great Bargain--or Two

We took an overnight trip Friday to see my son and his girlfriend. We decided to meet and stay at a hotel in Birch Run, MI.....a three hour drive for us and the home of a large outlet mall.

The first store I went in was Pottery Barn. In my small hometown we have nothing like Pottery Barn. I must say I was a bit surprised to see the prices in this outlet store. I found them to be quite high. But I kept an open mind and I did end up finding something to purchase:
These wild purple salad plates were marked down from $6/plate to $3 a plate. They also had a 10% off special due to the holiday weekend. So I bought six of them. I think they will work nicely for a Safari-themed dinner table.

Long time readers know that this is my favorite clothing store.

I have pretty much given up all the local clothing stores and I order online almost weekly from CC. I was excited to get to go in and see and touch the clothing I have seen online. I saw a sweater/jacket that I ordered last Thursday and was happy to see that it was quite cute in real life. I saw quite a few jackets and necklaces that I already own.

I must say that the online prices I get in the outlet store are way better than the prices in this store (the sweather was 50% less online). I did not buy anything here, but I felt really good about the prices I have been paying online. I made sure to drag Dear Husband over to many of the items I own and point out how much less I have been paying!

My best purchase was this pan.

It's a Calphalon One Infused Anodized 4-1/2-Quart Saucepan. There are different grades of Calphalon. I have some pieces of Simply Calphalon, which is not as nice as Calphalon One. I looked up this pan on Amazon. The price is $179.99. This pan was marked down to $49.99 because it had no lid. Because it was the 4th of July, they had it marked down again --to $19.99 on the sidewalk sale!!!
I was pretty sure I had a Calphalon lid at home that would fit. Sure enough I did. Wow--what a good deal I got on that one!

We even found a P. Farm store with items priced half or less of retail.


It's been years since I have been to this outlet mall. I don't really like to shop, but I shopped until I wore the skin off my toes from my flip flops (which was nearly closing time). The we took the kids out to dinner, and went back to the hotel, where DH and son were thrilled to find an old Ms. Pacman machine. After getting a pocketful of quarters they launched an attempt to exceed the high point person indicated on the machine. After just a few tries sonny boy topped the high score.

After a great night sleeping on some very comfy beds, we had breakfast and left early this morning for home. It took us all day to get home because we stopped at a number of difference places--everything from a casino to a Walmart store. To top off the whole trip, I won enough at the casino to pay for the whole trip--including all of my purchases. So all those bargains, 2 hotel rooms, dinner for four--it really didn't cost us a cent!

Ah, Life is good today.