Full Day Number One: Shopping and Food!

Jule slept late today, as expected, since she had a long day traveling yesterday.  We finally got up and going around 11 a.m. and headed straight to Wal-Mart for school shopping and grocery shopping!

Wal-Mart is a mammoth of a store.  It's both loved and hated in America.  People love it because you can get anything that you need in one place... from tires to grapes to medicines and televisions.  It's commonly called a "superstore" here in America.  And because it's so large in size and is found in nearly every town in America, its prices are cheap.  On the other hand, the small businesses cannot compete with its buying power and therefore many older "mom and pop" businesses have had to close their doors forever.  For small business owners, Wal-Mart meant the death of their livelihood.

Wal-Mart is also used as an example of a place where the odd people of America go to buy groceries.  We oftentimes make fun of it, and there are websites designated just for this purpose.  PeopleOfWalMart.com is one of those.  Take a gander at the photos.  It's disturbing.  Now, you don't ALWAYS find these people there, but in the very small rural towns you're likely to find some strange people.

After Wal-Mart, we were very hungry so we scooted down John F. Kennedy Boulevard to Jule's first Mexican Restaurant experience at Casa Mexicana.  We ate white cheese dip (queso blanco) and salsa with warm tortilla chips.  We both ordered flautas.  They are delivered with lettuce, sour cream, guacamole, Mexican rice and refried beans.  On the plate, it does not look good, but in your mouth, it is wonderful!  When we left the restaurant, we were both so full that we were miserable.

Mexican restaurants are everywhere in America, but especially in the south part of the U.S.  We have many illegal (and legal) immigrants from Mexico.  They come through the border and migrate north.  It's very common for the families to own restaurants.

After our Mexican food, we had to go grocery shopping.  Kroger is a common grocery store here in the United States.  We needed to get food for the house.  Eating out is fun, but I do need to cook on many nights!  :)  Jule was surprised at the number of different items we have of one product.  For instance Oreo cookies.  We have 18 different kinds of Oreos and hundreds of kinds of ice cream. It took ten minutes for her to pick out one kind of ice cream.  (She settled for Chocolate Ganache and a pint of Ben and Jerry's.)

We were tired after this, so we went home and rested a little.  Then we ate our leftovers from Texas Roadhouse Grill and went to a movie called The Campaign with Will Ferrell.

After the movie, I took Jule to her first "FroYo" experience.  We call Frozen Yogurt "FroYo" for short.  This is Tutti Frutti, the one closest to my home.  We both had fun trying all the flavors, and we both liked the sour ones the best!

So, full day #1 has come to a close.  We are tired.  Off to bed!