Costco Victory {Under an Hour; No Injuries}

Run over by the cart: a small price to pay for a quick exit from Costco

Our local Costco is famous, or infamous depending on which side of the US/Canada border you're from.  Truth be told, the place is almost always a madhouse, and though I used to make casual visits to the giant mart without much pre-planning or serious psychological preparation, those days are long gone.

These days, our pantry has to be lacking a long list of staples before I will make the formidable journey to the center of the civilized shopping world- the Bellingham Costco.  No more quick stops for bagels and bread or the cheap cooked chicken for an easy dinner fix.

Today and Peter and I braved the place just after the lunch hour had passed, and I delighted at the fact that we hit 5 green lights in a row heading north on Guide Meridian.  A traffic feat like that is worthy of celebration, especially in light of what we expected to encounter once we entered the C-zone.  Unbelievably, I coasted through the parking lot and into the very first (non handicapped) parking spot. 

A surprise beyond all telling, the place was almost vacant (comparably speaking) and I didn't suffer any cart collisions or curses from distraught shoppers.  The cooked chickens were sold out, but I managed to get in and out of the milk room without any traffic!  This was THE DAY to go to Costco~ no lines at check out, easy access to the exit and a pleasant parking lot.    

Note to self:  next time, bring THE SHOPPING LIST!

Costco Disaster {Rice Spill}

Joseph, displeased with the whole situation.

Today I let my boys loose in Costco with their own cart and a shopping list.  I tasked them with finding the big paper products and a few other easy to find items from one half of the warehouse.  I shopped for the meat, produce and other items, and we rendezvoused near the check-out.  Joseph and Peter tend to love speed walking with shopping carts, and need frequent reminders to watch out for elderly shoppers and keep within the acceptable speed limits. Zachary refuses to use a cart, and will double wield hand baskets, hauling unbelievable loads, avoiding all wheeled assistance.  

Don't get me wrong: I love their 'enthusiasm' for shopping; but it takes a fair amount of parental management to get through a store without incident.  A few years ago, I took them to the mall (the only place selling boys' dress shoes) they made short videos on Zac's phone pretending they had been kidnapped, appealing to authorities for help.  Some were shot from inside clothing display racks.  I now purchase all their dress shoes online... but I digress.

At the Costco check-out conveyor, Joseph and Peter creatively tossed and passed the grocery items from cart to belt, team-style.  Apparently, the bagging clerk was also in the tossing mode, and told his checker, "Go long!" for the paper towels.  As the carts were being unloaded, I noticed that Peter and Joseph had picked up the 50 pound bag of rice, rather than our usual 25 pound bag.  They love sticky rice! 

What a mess!

In an effort to hoist the 50 pound bag of rice from the cart into the back of the van, Joseph inadvertently ripped the bag, spilling about half of the contents onto the pavement.  In less than thirty seconds, the birds appeared, and starting snacking.  Knowing that raw rice can be deadly for birds, we shooed them away and went for help.  A few more attempts to get help finally produced results, and a team of Costco employees scooped up the mess and insisted that we take an unopened bag as a replacement. 

Will this rice disaster, and the resulting inconvenient (embarrassing) parking lot side-show neutralize my impulsive helpers?  Or will we be found at the scene of future shopping catastrophes?  Only time will tell!

Italy Day 4 pt2 {Rome: Finding St. Agnes}

In Navona Plaza, Tim and Zac dicipher the map in hopes of finding St. Agnes Church.

Centerpiece of the square in the Navona neighborhood (Rome)

St. Agnes Church, Rome, Italy

We buy fruit all the time.... really!

Found: the Colosseum!

Finding your way around a giant ancient city on foot isn't easy on an empty stomach, and when your map is written in a foreign language and not entirely accurate, things can get ugly. Things didn't really get ugly, but they did get a little harried Sunday afternoon on our quest for St. Agnes' Church. Walking a few miles east from the Vatican after Mass, we found a little deli to grab a quick bite, having passed dozens of restaurants en route (perhaps provoking hunger pains?). We hoped the deli owners could double as tour guides to to St. Agnes. They tried, but the language barrier made following their advice rather difficult. Wandering aimlessly, or so it seemed, through ally after ally (streets really, but only about as wide as a parking space and a half) we came to another unmarked T intersection and tried asking more non-English speaking restaurateurs for directions, with absolutely no success.   Meanwhile, I had been silently asking for St. Agnes' prayers that if it was God's will, we would come to find the Church.

Out of the blue a van pulled up and the driver (our airport-to-flat shuttle driver!) says, "I have your son's coat," and passes Peter's lost coat out the driver's window. We thanked him (in awe of the timing of his sudden appearance) and proceeded to ask him for directions to St. Agnes, which he simply gave and pulled away. As we started walking again, this time in stunned silence and joy, Tim asked, "How in the world did he find us? Am I the only one who finds this extremely strange?"

Hard to believe we hadn't seen St. Agnes when we were standing directly in front of it, but if we had seen it at that time, we wouldn't have been able to go inside as it was gated off.  A huge Sunday market filled the Piazzaa Navona and a large metal fence blocked the entry way.  We had seen it, stood right in front of it to consult the map, but not know it was St. Agnes' Church.  However, once we "found" it (and realized it was the locked building in the square) I asked the guys to wait a minute while I took a photo of  the building.  What I saw through the lens was a line of people entering and exiting the church, which had just been re-opened.  We entered the gorgeous church and were able to pray inside St. Agnes, at the place where this young martyr is buried.  Such a blessing, but not for the faint of heart! 
 
Trekking across town to the Colosseum after our visit with St. Agnes should have been fairly uneventful, but a grocery store faux pas and a bus stop debacle kept things interesting.  We dropped in to a grocery store along a busy road to pick up some fresh fruit for snacking.  It was a tiny maze of an inner city store, and our family of 5 clogged up the gears from start to finish... twice.  After waiting in the
l o n g check out line, we finally got very close to the check out.  The checker gave us a disgusted look and said something contrary to the current customer who politely explained in very broken English that there were no scales to weigh the fruit at check out.  So back to the produce department we weaved, and tried to figure out the tagging system for labelling our fruit.  C+ for effort, but next time we'll know to put the stickers on the little produce bags, not directly on the fruit!
 
Waiting at the bus stop for a lift to the Colosseum, Zac mentioned that the sign might read "only on weekdays."  Rather than standing at the bus stop for the remainder of Sunday afternoon, we asked a local if the bus would come today.  "No, not today. Where are you trying to go?"
"To the Colosseum."
"There it is, right there."  He pointed down the street, and sure enough, the Colosseum WAS right there!
Relieved that our seemingly endless walk would soon come to an end, and slightly embarrassed at our foible, we thank him, took our lives into our hands crossing another Roman street, and found the amazing landmark to be every bit as impressive as we had hoped it would be.  Except we arrived at closing time and will have to go back another day to go inside... 
 
And the journey continues!
 
Noteworthy:

• Cotton socks really do take about 3 times as long to line dry after a hand wash.
• Sometimes it's worth 75c to use a public toilet, other times, not so much.
• A litre of tap water can cost up to $4. at an Italian restaurant.