#Spoiled Rotten in the Sand Box

What is the first thing you do when you return from a vacation? I mean, after you sleep in your own bed, take a shower and put on some clean clothes you haven't been wearing for the last two weeks and unpack your bag enough to get down to your pajamas.

Go grocery shopping. 

If you are in the sandpit I am in, going to the grocery store can be torturous. So you have to find a way to make it as painless as possible. 

Why is it tortuous? 

Well, first of all, most of them are attached to a mall and the entrance is in the mall. Most of the locals go to the mall for entertainment, so the parking lots are C.R.A.Z.Y. FULL anytime after 2 pm on ANY. GIVEN.DAY, but especially on the weekends. 

So last night, some friends and I were going out for dinner at a great restaurant that just happens to be in my favorite mall in the Emerald City. 

The rub is: My favorite Mall is also a nightmare for parking if you don't get there at 8am on Friday (your equivalent of Sunday). 

After dinner the plan was to do a bit of grocery shopping to stock up on a few staples for them, for me and for my pets. 

So we decided to try out …. 

the VALET PARKING at the Mall.
BUT Parking was D.I.V.I.N.E!!!! and it is very close to the entrance to the grocery store. I will use it again, especially so I don't have to traipse around a parking garage with a grocery cart full of groceries and I will have someone else who will load my groceries in the car for me. (Now if they will follow me home and haul them up to the 7th floor and put them away.

Yeah, I am spoiled now. 

Dinner was great. 

Grocery store was a nightmare full of people and long lines and it was only Tuesday, which was one of our considerations before we made a decision of where to go.