OK. I screwed up again. I forgot to take a photo of our friends Pat and Charlie, whom we met for lunch in Albertville, Minnesota, yesterday afternoon. But I didn’t forget to take food photos. Shame on me! Tom and Charlie, old friends from the railroad, had seen one another a few times when we’d come to visit in the past. But I hadn’t seen him, and neither of us had seen Pat since Tom’s retirement party just before we left 11 years ago.
I’d intended to take a photo of the two or have our server take a photo of the four of us, but the lively conversation distracted me, and the time flew by so quickly. We’ve been grateful to see so many friends while traveling lately and look forward to more opportunities.
Finally, after a delicious lunch at the restaurant, it was 3:00 pm and time to head out. We hugged Pat and Charlie, saying we hoped to see them again on another visit sometime in the future. It had been way too long since we saw them.
We’d planned to drive to the nearby outlet mall and see if we could find water shoes for our upcoming tour and cruise to the Galapagos Islands in a little over a month. We checked out a few stores in the outlet mall to no avail. All the water shoes were gone, with Minnesota winter looming, and styles were geared toward winter activities rather than being in the water.
Our next best option is ordering them on Amazon since neither of us likes to drive all over town to various stores. We don’t like shopping. Even when we walked into the Payless Shoe Store, we cringed over all of the options but could not find anything that worked for either of us.
When we didn’t find shoes at the outlet mall, we headed to the Gap store to purchase some tee shirts for Tom. All he had left were worn and tattered tee shirts, which could easily be tossed into the garbage when they weren’t worth donating to Goodwill.
Next, we need to find him several short-sleeve button-up shirts. Since we began traveling, the Bass button shirts he’s been wearing have become threadbare and are ready to be tossed into the trash. It appears that the particular style that he likes is no longer available. We often find that to be the case when we return to the US to make new purchases of items we want.
At the Gap store, we could buy him seven nice tee shirts at half price that appeared to be of high quality. Now he can toss the old ones. We were thrilled to get all the shirts under $70 without sales tax. Minnesota has no sales tax on clothes, saving us 7% or 8% when purchasing items here.
I found Tom two new Bass shirts on eBay this morning and ordered them for him. I hadn’t shopped on eBay for a very long time, but in the past, I often found some fantastic deals on various items. I’ve seen some shirts that may work on Amazon and will place the order soon, along with water shoes for both of us.
On the way back from the restaurant, we returned to the pharmacy to pick up Tom’s prescriptions for his cough. Finally, everything was in stock. We were anxious to get him on the medications that hopefully will help him. He started everything last night, but I don’t expect to see any improvement for several days.
Today, we’re heading out on a few errands and will pick up food for dinner, which we’ll have at the hotel tonight since we made no plans for tonight. Soon, Tom’s family members will return from out of town, and we look forward to seeing them soon.
Have a great weekend!
Be well.
Photo from ten years ago today, September 16, 2013:
