Thank you all very much for the feedback! It is appreciated indeed!
For the amount of printing I'm planning on doing - cost effectiveness and longevity life of prints (thank you Ivan for terrific visual on those samples) - I will try Costco, specially considering how inexpensive their larger prints are.
For home print - with what I have (those Canons), I did try printing in Gray scale you guys suggested, the output is indeed more consistent. I bought some Premium photo paper 4x6, was able to finish the little project - framed collage of my parents photos (three 4x6 in one frame) and 2 individual 8x10 portraits of mom and dad (printed on Fuji).
But after discussion on Printers with my folks and my brother few days ago, suddenly a HUGE box appeared under my tree with my name on it. I wonder what's in it...
One can hope, right? I think I've been good this year (well, for the most part)
Thank you all again for you input, much appreciated!
Regards,
D