Seattle Shopping

The day started early at 830am, met for breakfast and then headed to the Hilton hotel and the Alamo car hire desk, i was told to book this via the British Airways crew website which had a link to Alamo with the discounts, i could not believe the car for 24 hours, fully inclusive was $40 or £20.00, that was divided by four of us and with the replacement fuel we payed $12.50 each or £6.25. I have paid more for a taxi to travel a short distance and we did almost 80 miles today.
We travelled north of Seattle to the Premium Outlet Mall in Tulalip, it was around 37 miles and we did hit some snow on the way, we never once got lost as i had printed out directions from Mapquest before i left home in UK.
The mall was quaint and not as busy as i thought it would be two Sundays before Christmas, we found a good parking spot and set off on the hunt for bargains.
The first shop i entered was the Calvin Klein store and i spent $140.00 then i spent $80 in the Polo/Ralph Lauren store and my biggest purchase was a $700.00 diamond necklace for my mother, i bought her a diamond ring last year and this will match the ring for special occasions.
I think spoiling your parents is important, they spoilt me all of my younger life and even now, and as i work and they are retired spoiling them is only saying thank you for my great upbringing and childhood which was full of great things as well as love.
Anyway, back to the shops................we stayed there in the Outlet mall until 130pm and then called at Wallmart next door where i bought gifts for Megan and some real great squeaky toys and a doggies furry mobile phone which rings,doubt i will be popular on Christmas day when Megan is making noise squeaking toys etc when people are trying to nap after a rather large lunch.
We got back to the city about 330pm and headed off to shops in the city after returning the car full of fuel, Ross is a typical "rummage store" where you have to really search to find designer brand items and seriously reduced prices, usually i cannot be bothered so only browse.
Bed Bath and Beyond is a really nice store, it is not typically bathroom items but as it's names suggest...Bed bath and......BEYOND, so it carried everything except clothes, lots of gadgets and photo frames, candles, bedding,etc. They were selling huge pampering bath item baskets all in cellophane and ideal for Ged to give to my mother as a Christmas gift so i got one for him, the holder is green suede and it looks nice.
I am now back in my hotel room, it is cold outside and although it is only 8pm my body is still on UK time at 4am so i am struggling to stay awake.I land back in Heathrow around 12pm on 11th December and driving home to my parents on Wednesday 12th, it usually takes about 5 hours and my car will be packed with gifts and clothes as not returning home until beginning of January. I will be flying on staff tickets from Newcastle to Heathrow 3 times leaving Megan with my parents while i fly to Calgary, Bangalore and New York ( twice) over New Year.
Fuel is UK is at a record high at an average of £1.07 per litre which is astronomical so the journey home will be more expensive than usual, however when i spend £50+ in Tesco's i get 5p off every litre of petrol so i am currently getting it for 96-97p per litre.







The Car we hired, the Chevrolet Impala, a nice comfortable car!!!