Mesa, AZ - Free Cookies

Have I told you about our free cookies? Well, I know I have but I’ll repeat the story since it was last November. One of our favorite restaurants is Panera. We like it for a ‘breakfast’ in the morning. Nothing better than a Panera bear claw, coffee, jazz and a quiet booth to chat, read my Ipad or whatever. Well, maybe their two-fer deal (2 of: soup, sandwich or salad) in the evening after a long day is better. But, none the less, you get my drift.

Well, Phoenix had no Paneras. The story I heard was that there were two other chains, Wildflower (which we also like) and Paradise,  both offering very much what Panera offers. I heard that Panera bought stock in Paradise and slowly they changed a few things to make it more like Panera. But, still, our Panera card did not work there. Then last November they changed the sign and had a grand opening as a Panera. At 10:00 a.m. Well, coincidently, fortunately, we had chosen that day to hit Paradise for a treat and coffee. At 8:00. Which meant that we were early for the 10 a.m. grand opening BUT got 2 cards with 12 punches for a dozen cookies each month. 2 cards, one for each of us. 24 cookies - each month for a year. What a deal.

But the cards started in January 2016 AND we leave January 1 for our next campground. Good only in the Phoenix area. We know they’re only good in the Phoenix area where Panera bought out Paradise since we tried using the coupon in San Diego and met with a ‘not valid here.’ Um, thanks. Aha - we mailed our cards to Smitty and Delores, our neighbors in Mesa and they faithfully used them for January, February, March and April when they left to head back to Iowa.

They have now given them back to us and we are filling in the last 3 months: October, November and December. Do I need 12 cookies every month? Absolutely not. I guess I’ll have to hike more.

But, we faithfully show up in the Panera twice a month for our cookies. Here are our choices: Quite a few and all look delicious.

Here’s Gary with our current dozen and one of our coupons - the one that is all used up. We’ve got the one with the last punch carefully under lock and key. Look closely, you can see him drooling.

We’ve heard that Apple is selling some new printers. We’ve got our name in for the first one manufactured.