Hometown Tourists

A few months ago, I won a raffle (and that is highly unusual for me!) at a charity event.  The prize?  A basket with all sorts of goodies from downtown...my hometown downtown.  And several gift certificates to stores downtown that I've never been to!  In general, I prefer going to places with parking lots.  Parking lots with slanted parking spaces are even better.  Parking downtown?  I avoid it.  I will walk blocks to not need to parallel park.  But the gift certificates were begging to be spent.

With the little boy gone for the week, the girls and I decided to have a fun girls date.  We thought it would be fun to walk all over downtown and go spend those gift certificates together. 

And, oh yes, it was fun!  I did park blocks away, with the specific purpose of making our first stop Sweet Charley B's.  The girls had not been yet, so we had to get our hands on some cupcakes together.

 

Next stop was Compass Rose.  What a FUN store!  Lots of great things, from stationary to jewelry to kitchen stuff...more than I can list here.  It was fun to explore that store together.  I will for sure head back to that place.  The girls each got their own beaded bracelet and a leather bracelet to share.

 

Then it was off to Archibald Sisters.  Oh my goodness, talk about a step back in time!  I remember being their age and going there for the "Rain" lotion, and spending oodles of time smelling all the different scents.  It was fun watching my girls experience that!  We each got a travel size bottle of lotion.  Mine, of course, is Rain.

 

Then it was off to Wind Up Here!  Such a fun toy store, and they turned into little girls again, looking at all the stuffed animals!  Loved it.  We ended up choosing a game that the whole family can play, and foregoing the "Ugly Doll" that Beth was pulled towards.

We then went to Traditions.  I sorta thought we'd use our gift certificate to have lunch there, but nothing was really sounding good.  Then Brenna spotted this heart-shaped rock from Haiti.  "This would be so great to have as a reminder of our special day together!"  Sold.

So we thought we'd go The Bearded Lady (our last gift certificate) for lunch.  We were there about 7 minutes before they closed, and I learned all they sold were vegan/gluten free baked goods.  We aren't vegan or gluten free, but the sweets sure looked good!  So we gave him our gift certificate and he filled a box for us. I won't give a taste-test review. But hey, they were free to us and beautiful to look at!

Hungry, hungry, we headed down to Farmer's Market to have some lunch.  Corn dogs and french fries! 

On our way out of Farmer's Market, we walked by this band, passionately singing about tomatoes. Honestly.  I gave Beth one of "those" looks and warned her not to laugh or say anything.  But once we were behind them, we all kinda let out a giggle.  They were very entertaining, for sure.

It was a sweet day with my girls.  We looked like tourists in every way...cross-body purse, camera, asking for directions, standing on corners and obviously trying to figure out which way to go.  Touring our hometown was a blast, and it was extra fun doing it all on gift certificates with two of my favorite people on this planet.

And then, to top it off, the girls wrote on the I Love You board after our date!

I love you too, my sweet girls.