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It only takes about an hour and forty five minutes to get there ... but if I were you I would wait a little while longer! The crowds are unbelievable and the check-out line even worse!! It opened Thursday to a zoo!

My daughter thought things would be better this weekend so drove up from South Beach on Sunday and found bumper-to-bumper traffic and no parking so she turned around!

You have to park in a nearby lot and take a trolly.

It is great to have an Ikea so close ... I shopped their two stores in Calgary also in Toronto. It was always an all-day excursion and fun!

The Sunrise store is the second in the south. The Atlanta store opened in 2005 with 31 others in the U.S., and more to come!

When you plan to go, plan to stay for a while as they have 50 room settings, with everything in the room for sale. Plus three model homes.

Ikea offers 10,000 exclusively designed items. There is a supervised play area for the kids and a large restaurant for that cup of coffee with a Swedish pastry or when you stop for lunch.

Ikea merchandise is very modern, contemporary with clean lines. And in most cases you have to put it together. My daughter put in a whole kitchen ... all I know is they ship and there are a lot of screws and bolts so prepare to spend some quality time together!

I will walk you through Ikea. Going through the first floor entrance you go up the escalators to the second floor and into the living rooms. From there wall units, media and storage, continuing to the work area and on to the kitchens and dining. Are you following me? Next comes bedrooms and last is the children's section. There are short cuts all along the way so you don't have to travel the whole floor to for instance get to the children's section. The restaurant and cafe are just before you go down to the ground floor.

There you start with cooking and eating, on to textiles and rugs. Next you come to home organization and on to lighting. From there prints and frames, home decoration and the greenroom. We're almost through! Now you enter self serve furniture, on to As Is and finally to check-outs. Are you tired yet? Before you go out the door there is an Ikea Bistro and Ikea Swedish food market...pick up some ginger cookies...they are wonderful...great for the ride home!! Last is furniture pick-up, home delivery and returns and exchanges.

This is just to tell you a little about Ikea. In another column I will tell you of some of the great finds and low, low prices!!! I love Ikea! You will find lots of wonderful little bargains there from candles, home accessories, draperies, stuff for the bath, kitchen gadgets to furniture! Everything you need for the home! Course I always buy things I don't need! But it's fun!

Ikea is located in Sunrise at 151 N.W. 136th Ave. at the northwest corner of I-595/SR-84 and N.W. 136th Ave. Not far from Sawgrass Outlets. Hours 10-9 Mon.-Sat., 11-8 Sun. It will be closed Thanksgiving and Christmas. Phone: (954) 838-9292 More to come on IKEA at a later date when things settle down!