Turned off the highway at 10 to have brunch at Cracker Barrel. Though the outside screams 70's, the inside is pure southern rural. The walls are lined with vintage tin signs, patterns, ads, and even a gun over a fireplace. We shared a cheese and bacon tater tot casserole and fried pickle chips. Lauren had Eggs Benedict, with the eggs over a biscuit instead of an English muffin. I had two big pancakes with scrambled eggs, bacon, and fried apples. Yum! The apples were a little gluey, but everything else was amazing.
We stopped at the gift shop on the way out. This sells basic toys and gadgets, but it also has holiday decorations, records, CDs (mainly for country stars), sweaters and shirts, and lots and lots of wooden rockers lining the front patio. I didn't see anything I wanted, but Lauren picked up a sweater.
It was twenty minutes to our ultimate destination for the day, the massive Crossgates Mall. Parked next to JC Penney, so we figured we'd start there. I found a coral tank top that was just $3.73 on the clearance racks. Lauren came up with two shirts.
Headed to DSW Shoes next-door after that. Lauren wanted new shoes for work. She had the devil of a time finding ones she liked. Either they were too narrow, or too big and slipped. We finally spotted a pair of slip-on loafers in the clearance racks that didn't slip with her wearing socks. And not only that, she got them for $40,
We were in and out of a few stores next. We found nothing in their Burlington Coat Factory, Build-a-Bear, Jay Street Video Games, FYE, or a local toy store. Lauren spent nearly a half-hour looking for Lego people at the Lego Store and making her own versions of three Hogan's Heroes characters. She bought calendars at Go! Calendars and Toys for herself and her father and a pair of tweed pants for work on a really good clearance at Old Navy.
Spent the next hour at Dave & Buster's (once I finally managed to get my money into the machine). This is pretty much the same deal as Round 1, with no bowling, fewer crane games, and machines that use slightly less tickets. I spent the next hour running from skee ball to wheels you pushed under a lever to bean bag toss, ring toss, and Mario Kart (got Yoshi this time). Ended up with over 2,770 points. Indulged and got a little Charmander, the fire lizard Pokemon, with plenty of points left for next time.
Headed to Primark, the Irish department store, next. This Primark was not only a lot bigger than the one in Philadelphia, it carried a lot more plus size clothes, too. The plus sizes in the city probably get picked over quickly. I saw some sweaters I liked, but they were too heavy for me to carry in my luggage. GameStop yielded no finds.
By this point, it was quarter after 5. We were way past dinnertime. Trouble is, most of the sit-down restaurants at Crossgates are expensive steakhouses. Finally went with the only one that seemed somewhat reasonable, Maggie McFly's. This is a sleek black and tan modern bar and grill with an aviatrix mascot. We opted for half of a pizza and salad. Lauren had barbecue chicken pizza and Caesar salad. I had a spring greens salad and Hawaiian pizza with ham, pineapple, and cheddar cheese. Oh wow, yum! It was more like a flatbread pizza, not crunchy like I expected, and it was amazing. Even the salad was good.
Finally headed home after that to show Mr. and Mrs. Miller our finds. After we got online, I finished the night with a third season episode of Charlie's Angels at Tubi. "Angel Come Home" brings back Jill Munroe (Farrah Fawcett) when she thinks her sister Kris (Cheryl Ladd) sent for her. Turns out she did nothing of the sort. Jill thinks she's going to drive a designer's experimental car in a big race. Her fiancee (Stephan Collins) disapproves of her driving the car and the man who created it, but he has his own demons. When tragedy strikes, Jill learns the car designer she admired wasn't as on the up-and-up as she believed, and that her fiancee may have been right after all...
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