Two Days

With Thursday being our anniversary and all, the husband and I decided to take a little trip to Greensboro for a day of shopping.

A new outlet mall opened earlier this month, and since I had missed out on shopping when we did our dash to Myrtle Beach and back, I had planned to slip down to this larger city and see what I could find in the way of Christmas presents.

But when husband suggested an anniversary get-away, I suggested we head there.

This little second honey-moon really was a second honey-moon for us - we'd never been away from home on our anniversary before. This is because we married during hunting season and we simply don't go away during hunting season.

But husband had already shot a nice deer, plus I hadn't had a vacation of any kind, unless you count being awake for 14 hours of driving, which I don't, so I suppose this seemed like a good idea to him.

I was delighted.

We roomed at Springhill Mariott in Greensboro, arriving there about mid-day Thursday. The room was fine, thank goodness, and we were even able to check in early. We left our suitcases and went to Four Seasons mall (I'm giving you these links because I didn't take pictures), which is three floors of shops. The JC Penny there was the largest JCP I have ever been in, I think. Much larger than the one in Roanoke, anyway.

The husband's favorite shop was Cinnabon, where they make cinnamon rolls that he thinks are the best in the world. Of course we had to buy a box.

Then we headed off to Friendly Center, where there were even more shops.

Finally, we headed back toward the hotel for dinner. We went east instead of west and took a long tour of the city before calling the hotel and asking for directions. We were quite lost!

We had our anniversary dinner at O'Charley's, and then we went back to our room to, um, watch TV.

The next day we headed to Mebane, which was about 1/2 hour's drive down I 40. As we headed toward Exit 154, where the Tanger Outlet was, I spied the outlet sign. Then I saw the shops - acres of stores.

We bought Christmas presents for loved ones. We also picked up a few things for ourselves, including a new set of dishes and a set of knives for the kitchen. After 27 years, things do start to need replacing, after all, and I'm still using dishes and steak knives I received as wedding presents.

While we purchased many items, I did not really see bargains. The best thing about this place is selection. There were, of course, a few nice clearance items but on the whole don't expect to see what one might consider true "outlet" prices. To me, these are really just name-brand retail stores, not bargain-priced outlets.

To reach Mebane, we passed through Burlington, NC. Burlington used to be the place for the outlet mall shopping. James and I made a couple of trips down there 20 years ago, when we were younger and could stand driving for two hours, shopping all day, and then driving back home to fall into the bed. I also went down and back with my mother a couple of times. It certainly can be done and many people will do it for this new outlet mall, I am sure.

Anyway, we reminisced about those trips so long ago in our past. We even drove through the Burlington Outlets to see what was left. Not much. The buildings did not look like they were in disrepair, but many were empty. I don't think the list of stores on the website is current as I did not see some of those stores in the vicinity.

After we destroyed our feet and made our legs hurt from walking around Tanger Outlet, we returned to Greensboro. We had dinner at Golden Corral and then went back to Four Seasons mall, because obviously we had not shopped enough.

Our adventure ended bright and early this morning (Saturday), when, after a scrumptious breakfast at IHOP, we headed north back to beautiful Botetourt. In fact, we were back home by 10:30 a.m. and that included a stop at Kroger for groceries (because we didn't have enough bags in the car yet, apparently).

And that, as they say, was that.