Twelve Posts In Twenty-One Days: Episode Eleven - Stew Leonard's And Two Worthwhile Stops

Our quest to catch up on our blog postings by writing twelve posts within three weeks of July 11th is almost complete! This is the eleventh "episode" and it is for the third weekend in July which was just last weekend!

It was another three day weekend as we, again, took a Friday vacation day. We have twenty vacation days to take and we try to extend as many weekends as possible. Maybe next year we will go for a weeklong trip. For now, extending weekends is our plan. There were no sales of interest on Friday but there was one thing we were interested in seeing...the new Stew Leonard's. It is a very small chain of grocery stores that first opened in Connecticut in 1969. Up until this year, there were four locations and all were located in Connecticut. This year, they added their first store out of state and it is on Long Island. Known for the interactive, fun shopping experience, it was our turn to check it out on Friday.

We arrived at Stew Leonard's on Friday. It is a really big grocery store! There is a giant neon sign in that middle window that is lit up at night. One day, we will have to drive by to see it at night.

The Stew Leonard's cow greeted us at the entrance.

We knew we were in for a treat when we saw that the outdoor garbage pail was a giant ice cream cone! 

This duck was displayed on the floor and we were grateful for his direction, if needed!

Stew Leonard's are known for their interactive animatronics. All you have to do is press a button and they come to life. Who doesn't love singing chickens?

Another one of the great animatronic displays was this dairy band who sang and played their instruments once you pressed the button to activate them...and believe us, we did! 

Stew's Naked chicken singers...another animatronic display that came to life!

There were so many more animatronic displays that we didn't post but we had to post this one. This was our favorite...the singing Chiquita Banana. We pressed the button numerous times! 

There were a lot of flipping characters. This sock monkey was just one of them. There was also The Incredible Hulk, Yoda, a stormtrooper, Spiderman and a lobster.

Shark attack! This giant shark called attention to the seafood department

There were even novelty beers here...one for each major presidential candidate

You could buy hot lunch (buffet style), pizza, sushi (with genuine sushi chefs) or ice cream here. It is much more than a grocery store. We loved our trip through here though we didn't buy anything. Everything is a lot more expensive than we can find elsewhere. Still, it is a great, interactive shopping experience! 

For dinner, we decided to go to a Chinese Restaurant nearby whose coupons we get in the mail. When Monica discovered that they has tiki mugs, it was only a matter of time until we went. Tonight was that night.

We got one Zombie and one Mai Tai and, of course, shared them. The restaurant isn't exactly vintage but it has some longevity (opened in the late 1980's) and the dining room looks like how so many Chinese restaurant dining rooms looked like in the late 1970's. We had a really nice time.

Saturday, as always, is saling day and we only found two worthwhile sales amongst the sea of sales out there. Neither were too far away and, when only going to two sales, that seemed, somewhat, important. We weren't sure what we would find but we were excited that there was opportunity to go on our saling adventures together. With a very short list in hand, off we went.

Sale #1 was described as a 1920's home filled with treasures. It was a "one day blowout" but there were no pictures in the ad. We weren't sure what to expect. We weren't here at the opening so there was no line. Upon entering, we saw that the sale was run by someone who we don't see all that often but who runs some pretty good sales when she runs them. She told us that she had taken a break for a short time. Despite the size of the house, there were not all that many rooms to search. Still, it was a worthwhile stop and we left with a few Easter items, some records, a Pyrex dish and a few other things. She also told us that she would be running a sale next week that would be worthwhile. We planned to see her again soon.

After stopping for some breakfast, we made our way to our second and final sale of the day. It was run by one of the more prolific tag sale companies in our area although many of their sales are not our style. This one was described as a "trip back in time" and, although we didn't see much in the pictures in their ad, we did see two tiki mugs in one of the pictures. Those were our target.

This old dishwasher was in the kitchen. It might be the first dishwasher ever! 

The basement was huge and well worth searching. We found a few cool things down here.

This sports ca racing game was great. If only it were in better condition! 

We saw this mounted pencil sharpener on an upstairs desk. We should have known. It is, almost always, a good sign that we would find good things in the house and we did! 

Interestingly enough, the two tiki mugs we saw in the picture were nowhere to be found but we found two other tiki mugs, a wooden tiki and a pair of tiki salt and pepper shakers here. We also found some records, some posters, some party things and some other things.

We had plenty of time so we spent extra time visiting Monica's dad before coming home and looking at what we brought home. Here is what we saw:

Some records

Some more records

Some 10-inch records

A 7-inch record

Some Mad magazines from the early 1970's

Another early 1970's Mad magazine and some other books

An old Long Island Railroad "Dashing Dan" button and some cocktail stirrers

An old birthday banner

An old Herb Alpert poster

An old Don Ho poster

Some old New Year's Eve noisemakers

An old Whirly Bird game...endorsed by Warren Spahn! 

Ceramic Easter decorations, both marked Japan

Mini Mexican hats (for our Cinco de Mayo parties), a 1958 Pyrex promotional dish and some old birthday hats

Tiki salt and pepper shakers and tiki mugs. All were made for the Hawaii Kai and all are marked Japan.

A wooden tiki idol with jeweled eyes

Sunday, we had to mentally prepare ourselves for the reality of a full five-day workweek after having three four-day workweeks in a row. We got our errands and chores done and found time to relax too.

We'll get through the full workweek knowing that our next weekend together is only five days away and knowing that each day, as the workday ends, that we will come home to each other. Nothing could ever mean more to us. 

This was our eleventh post since we set our goal of twelve posts in twenty-one days. We have one posts left and one day in which to post it. It is for our saling adventures today! It looks like we have caught up!