Introducing the Grape Leaf

Our Location today is Tecumseh, Ontario, Canada.

After spending most of the night thinking about nothing of any importance I managed to sleep in later than normal. Have you ever had a song playing in your head that just won’t go away? That was the cause of my wakeful night. We still both got up around 8:00 so after a relaxing breakfast we settled in with only a single cup of coffee to get our morning reading done.

Kathy always monitors our expenses, bank accounts and charge cards so that somebody else is not having fun on our dime as has happened before. With us occasionally making online purchases it would not be difficult for someone lurking in the darkness to hack into our accounts. This morning Kathy found an additional charge that neither of us could recall making. After Kathy made some notes I was on the phone to PayPal to see what it was all about. When I purchased my new laptop through a Canadian site it was shipped from Ohio to Kentucky to Toronto to Windsor to Tecumseh before I had to hunt to find it. The extra charge turned out to be International Shipping charges (Canadian Duty). So a warning to anyone that buys something online even if the ad says free shipping there may be hidden charges that just aren’t advertised. Even with the extra charges I still paid less than half for the same laptop that Kathy purchased here in Ontario.

Over the years Kathy and I have developed an allergy to cold weather and today was one of those. We were starting to feel closed in so Kathy made a shopping list and out the door we went. Our first stop was Shoppers Drug Mart at the Tecumseh Mall where Kathy was unable to get what she was looking for but found some toiletries from our grocery list that were on sale and giving bonus shopping points. Since it was still early after I put our purchase in the car we walked the mall for exercise. In one of the smaller shops Kathy spotted a few more things that were on sale that she was able to scratch off our early Christmas shopping list. Since we were on a roll when we left the mall we continued stopping at some of these smaller shops in an unsuccessful bid to accomplish more of that shopping.

After checking the last of those shops we spotted a diner our daughter-in-law Melissa had told us about called the Grape Leaf. It served a mix of Lebanese and Greek foods. We chose to eat in and the atmosphere was authentic as we listened to the banter of the cooks as they prepared the food fresh and it tasted as good as the presentation itself. While enjoying our meal regular customers came and went and they even got into the friendly bantering with the cooks as their food was made to order. The only problem we had was not knowing this place was here before but we’ll definitely be going back there again.

Before returning to the apartment we drove to the Metro grocery store where Kathy managed to get nearly everything on her shopping list and most of it was on sale. The best part was that we had a Gift Card that we had received last Christmas to use which meant we really come away with quite a haul. When we got back to the apartment there were no shopping carts available to bring our purchases upstairs so we carried it all up the stairs by hand.

Now that we are officially under six weeks before we begin our Fulltiming Adventure we’ve got plans for making progress tomorrow. Thanks for following along and feel free to leave a comment. Be Safe and Enjoy!

It’s about time.

 

Birds in Shark Valley, Florida.

 

Krackers

You Might Be a Redneck If

The only time you leave the house is to buy lottery tickets.