See, I thought my mother in law was the Costco queen.
Joan does regular Costco runs to the warehouse closest to her and will fill a cart to overflowing which generally fills the back of her mini van. When we were in Hawaii in June and Joan was preparing for the onslaught of all five of her children, four in-laws, two kids, three rats, and a dog all under one roof, the Costco haul was two and a half carts, the back of the mini van, and some of the back seat. It was a pretty serious Costco run.

I was making our own monthly warehouse shopping run this afternoon. Saturday isn’t my favorite time to go to Costco, but that was the way it turned out this time and so I had to face the crowds. The Southcenter Costco has, of course, a proportionately large Costco sized parking lot and I always try to park near the back because it’s easier to find a place to park and I don’t have to deal with the nonsense of people cruising the aisles looking for the spot closest to the door. I’d rather walk, rain or shine, than deal with the idiots who are willing to wait for upwards of 10 minutes at a time while someone else fills up their trunk just to avoid having to walk a few more steps. I take it as a sign that I’m living my life right when I can manage to get my shopping done and checked out well before the yahoos that waited to park closer to the door manage to do so.
Parking philosophy aside, this afternoon I parked well back in the back as I usually do. Since this particular Costco is right up against the Tukwilla section of the Green River trail there are frequently people parked back there who aren’t Costco customers. Campers and RVs aren’t uncommon. When I got back to my car with my haul, at some future point I’ll probably wax philosophic about purchasingingredients versus purchasing food, I did notice the oddity of a bus in the parking lot. A big bus. Like a charter sized bus. Unusual place to want to bring a bus, I thought, but since I wasn’t driving it, what the hey. I guess bus drivers have the right to sit and watch the river go by on their lunch break just like everyone else.
Except….
Except, the bus had all of its cargo hatches open.
And once I got closer to it I noticed that the cargo holds were mostly full of…. Costco purchases. Just then the second wave of people with laden carts came down the parking lot and started emptying their carts into the bus.
A charter sized bus, with a big Boeing logo on the back as it turns out, with 12-15 people of Asian heritage and absolutely BULGING with Costco merch.

Now THAT is a Costco run.