Last Monday was Canadian Thanksgiving. It’s unlike American Thanksgiving in a way – It’s celebrated on the second Monday in October (guaranteeing a long weekend) and retail outlets are generally open.

On Saturday we decided to take advantage of the tumbling US dollar and take in some retail therapy.

It was a two hour wait at the less known Aldergrove Crossing; I really need to apply for NEXUS. We obviously weren’t the only ones headed south that day.

We stopped at the Best Buy in Bellingham and gravitated towards the GPS Systems.

I always considered in-car navigation systems to be superfluous until I witnessed how sane it makes ones life.

We were initially just browsing but a sales person managed to convince us we needed one immediately or we’ll get horribly lost getting back to cold and far-away Canada.

It was between a Garmin and Magellan unit, we were practically begging them to take our money when a little sanity prevailed. We decided to shop around a bit.

There was a Costco next door, we weren’t sure if our Canadian Costco membership was good there. Not only are our cards good there, they take our debit cards too!

And as if that wasn’t great news enough, they had the Magellan unit there for $150.00 less than Best Buy!

With our new GPS system guiding us, we made our way to Target.

Now, I love Target – possibly because there aren’t any Targets in Canada. This might change though… I used to love H&M until the first one opened here a couple of months ago. I stocked up on my staples – I’ll be good for a month or two.

Our main reason for this trip was actually Trader Joe’s, a new one (the closest one to us) opened in Bellingham. I can’t even begin to describe my passion for Trader Joe’s. It’s unnatural and I’m convinced people don’t understand the wonder that’s Trader Joe’s. Where else can you get SLS free shampoo for $2.50?

We hit the mall afterwards, where I scored a Delonghi toaster oven on sale over at Macy’s.

We had dinner, it rained and Mage guided us home after an hour’s wait at the border.

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