The Kleiber Family Timeline

Category: Shopping

Shopping trips

  • Mackinaw Second Visit (August 2022)

    Our second trip to Mackinaw was a quick one, but we still had a blast. It was a one day visit and the weather was perfect. James got to spend a little time at the beach and Mary got to see a sunset. Our main purpose in this trip was to see the Northern Lights which were supposed to be very visible, but unfortunately we did not notice anything special in the night sky except the lights from the bridge.

    The next day we visited the Deer ranch in St. Ignace (which was our reason to cross the bridge. James fed them carrots but kept his mask on as he wanted to make sure the upper peninsula was safe from any lower peninsula germs. (more…)

  • Screamers Dream Cruise 2022

    Our friends at Screamers had a huge event today, a sort of dream cruise event. The creepy cars were parked in their parking lot (which was nearly full) and all their items were 10 percent off in the store. The line for the store was huge so we spent most of our time enjoying the outside events.

    Lets recap this weekend. Seeing a spook show on Friday and then going to a Spirit Halloween opening on Saturday, followed by a Screamers event on Sunday – all in early August – we had to say that it just doesn’t get any better than that.

    Or as Jim Harbaugh says, “who has it better than us? Nobody!! (more…)

  • First Halloween Shop Open 2022

    After spending the night in Coldwater after watching the Spook Show at the Abbott Get Together we stopped off in Jackson on the way home and were shocked to see that the Spirit Halloween store in the indoor mall (just of 94 and 127) was opened. We went inside and bought a few items for our upcoming party in October. We are hoping to have 3 skeletons jumping out of bags and were happy to find 2 of those in stock at this store. Only 1 more to find and our Halloween needs will be complete, at least for now.

  • Past Tense 2022

    This was the first time we went to Past Tense since the pandemic, and had a pretty good time. First thing we noticed in the door was 20% off all garden items so Mom took advantage of this to purchase some spinning items for the yard. Past Tense also has year round Christmas and Halloween decorations so we bought a little of both. Some skulls with peeling skins for Dad, and some Christmas ornaments marked 95% off for James. Mom bought some garden items and after it was over and we were on our way home we made our traditional ice cream stop. (more…)

  • Bronners Visit 2022

    Memorial Day weekend continued with a trip to Bronners in Frankenmuth. The first thing we noticed when we drove into Frankenmuth was that there was a dog show called “The Dog Bowl” and the city of Frankenmuth was packed with visitors to see this show. However Bronners was not crowded at all and we took advantage of it to enjoy a nice visit to the largest Christmas shop in the land. Perhaps the most exciting new thing we saw was that Dept 56 was putting out a new Munster and Addams Family ceramic houses. We already had the Hawthorne version of the Munsters but we really had nothing on the Addams family so we bought a small Addams family gazebo to go into our ceramic display of haunted houses. (more…)

  • Great Lakes Crossing 2022

    Its been a few years since we have been to Great Lakes Crossing and James and Mom really wanted to go. James was looking for games at the game store and Mary was looking for deals at the Women stores.

    Dad really did not want to go so he dropped the two off at the shopping complex and went to kill an hour at another attraction.

    Great Lakes Crossing is the largest indoor outlet mall in Michigan and this day it was a little busy but not really bad, considering it was Memorial Day weekend. A great time was had by one and all at two different locations in Michigan.

  • Macinaw City 2022

    Our first visit since before the pandemic was a successful one. It was the day before the Memorial day crowd would show up so we had the city pretty much to ourselves. Lots of shopping for goodies and t-shirts. Once again we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express there and they were still doing construction on something in the lobby (when we were there last time, there was also construction of some kind going on).

    The breakfast was great and everyone had a great time in the city. We did notice that all the kite shops seemed to have disappeared which is unfortunate. For dinner we had pizza and wings two days in a row. Thats why its a vacation. (more…)

  • Power Loss and a Trip to Frankenmuth 2021

    Sunday began much differently than it ended but its these unexpected surprises that sometimes make the best fun. After dropping of some goods at Grandma’s the family returned home and found out a car accident had caused a power failure throughout Dearborn and Dearborn Heights. With no power at home we decided to take a little road trip to Frankenmuth for some last minute Christmas shopping.

    As one would expect, the place was crowded with lines outside of Bronners just to get in and a 2.5 hour wait for chicken dinner, but the family was not deterred as they spent a few hours shopping at the mall and even had a chance encounter with a Christmas hero of Dad… No, not Santa, but the Grinch!

    A great time was had by all as we listened to the Lions win their second game of the year and lots of Christmas music.

    (more…)

  • After Halloween Sale 2021

    After Halloween is a holiday in our family. This year we kept saying we really did not need anything, but we went out anyway and could not resist the 50-80 percent of sales that were going on. We hit Halloween City first, then Spirit Halloween, and finally Jo Annes, Michaels, and Walmart.

    This year was certainly different as there was many empty shelves in many of the stores as they were having a hard time getting inventory in. Because of this we did not expect much to be left after Halloween but we got lucky because we shopped in a city outside of the suburbs where the population was a little light.

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  • Haunted Garage Sale 2021

    The Haunted Garage Sale was held at the Dearborn civic center next to the library on Michigan Avenue. James could not attend because he was in Saturday classes at Wayne County Community College but Dad went and picked up a few things.

    Perhaps the neatest display was the apothecary display of various witches potions and spells all in bottles that looked like they were hundreds of years old when in fact they were probably only a few days old.

    The event was well attended but still seemed not as busy as it used to be, perhaps its the pandemic or perhaps its just that the new venue is so much bigger than the other auditoriums.

    (more…)