Shopping in the US

What a long day of shopping! Rhoda, my BFF and I decided to do our "Boxing Day" Shopping in the States even though it had snowed the night before and both of our moms wouldn't let us take one of their cars, we were heading out there anyways! Besides, it wasn't really snowing when we left and we were praying that it would be clear when we got back. Since, I had missed out on Boxing Day yesterday which I heard was super busy and I cannot shop in all the madness, we decided to head down to the states to do some "boxing day" shopping. Wait, ! I did have an early Boxing Day shopping at Aritzia, picked up a pair of Rock and Republics for $175 (normally $235+) cos they started their Boxing Day sale earlier in the week. I still needed to find a pair of denim for my runners and flats cos both my 7s and RRs are 34" inseam which are perfect for my heels not so good with my flats. Our goal was to find a pair of inexpensive designer jeans at Nordstrom Rack in Bellevue! First stop of course was the Seattle Premium Outlet in Tulalip cos Rhoda had to hit a few stores in there, she ended up buying a really beautiful Michael Kors winter coat at a great price plus she's been wanting this jacket for a while and it finally dropped to an affordable price. I didn't find anything in the outlet but that's ok cos I was very focused on what I wanted and needed. We decided to head out after an hour cos we still had a long drive ahead of us. We drove for an hour and decided we should now think about lunch, every time we head to the States, we always lunch at Jack in the Box. We started to head towards {a city where the rich people live, can't remember the name}'s downtown but could not locate the Jack in the Box, after 30 minutes of driving in circles, we decided to find the next thing closest place where they serve food and it was Denny's. Boy was that a mistake! Our tummies did not feel good for the rest of the day! After lunch, we headed our way to the first destination which is the mall that we had gone to last time which has Sephora, Forever 21 and Wet Seal. I picked up a cute knit sweater with a hoodie for $10 USD and Too Faced Lash Injection mascara which I have heard can do wonders for Asian eye lashes! After shopping at the mall, we were on our way to Nordstrom Rack in Bellevue. Gosh was it ever super busy!! We headed towards the designer denim rack and I was a bit disappointed to see such a small collection of the smaller sizes. I quickly scanned through it and grabbed an armful of jeans in a few sizes to try on. Right after the jeans, I headed over to the shoe collection. Wow, there were so many designer shoes!! At such low prices!! Marc Jacobs for $120!! But I was focused cos I only brought $150 USD and that is all I'm spending! Luckily I didn't find any shoes that really stood out or maybe I wasn't really looking for anything in particular. I went through the rest of the store and picked up a couple of tops to try on as well. Once inside the changing room, I didn't like the tops but really loved the jeans! I really liked the William Rast pair but they were priced at $80 (normally priced at $240!) and were def. too long which meant I would have to wear them with my heels, the Rich and Skinny pair were perfect but in the wrong size, I needed one size up (which I tried looking for but all of them were gone!!!) and finally ended up buying a really nice pair of Vigoss Studio jeans for $40 USD!! Just within my budget! I really like them too, back pockets are set a bit lower than the usual and very dark denim which is what I love! Feeling a little bit bad about leaving Kay at home, I picked up a really cute Vans purse for her which only cost $10USD! Rhoda ended up with a couple of pairs of shoes but in the end decided against them (not in love with them) but she did find a pair of work shoes for Nel. After the Rack, we headed next door to the DSW and another great place for shoe lovers or not (I have a terrible addiction to shoes), Rhoda picked up a beautiful pair of heels by Michael Kors (her fave. designer) and I picked up a cute pair of brown shoes with pom poms for only $25 USD and a pair of leopard red trimmed slippers for $5!! After our shopping, it was def. time to head back and we thought we were doing great time until we realized we were now stuck in the middle of rush hour traffic! Traffic wasn't too bad all the way but we kept getting stuck in it when there was an exit to another suburban neighborhood. As we were getting close to the border, we had the strangest weather, at some points, it was snowing pretty hard and other parts, it was just rain or clear. Very strange. Finally when we were 5km from the border, we were stuck in the traffic to get into Canada, we had to wait an hour before reaching it and lucky for us, the customs officer decided to wave us through even though we spent over the tax free amount! It was a great day and lots of great shopping finds!