Monday, December 07, 2009

Rain, sleet, snow and NYC...


You really haven't lived until you spend nine hours shopping in NYC in rain, sleet and snow! The day started out innocently enough but the weather deteriorated within a few hours. It was a heavy downpour of sleet/wet snow/rain the whole day. The city was a sea of drenched shoppers, rain panchos and umbrellas! Bad weather doesn't deter shoppers and it didn't deter us.

Tinsel Trading



Shopping at Macy's is still one of my favorite things to do before Christmas. Yes, there are Macy's stores near here but nothing beats the real thing. The energy, the bright lights, the bustle really make my holiday mood complete. I love the escalators with the wooden steps, the ambiance, and Holiday Lane where the Christmas ornaments fill part of a floor.

Macy's window



Sony Building

The rain was so heavy and it became so dark that taking out a camera was really difficult. People were standing in front of windows trying to stay dry but blocking the view. The crowds were enormous and moving swiftly in the deluge. If you slow down to take a photo, you slow down everybody and that can be very annoying.

St. Patrick's Cathedral which is always mobbed during Advent was more crowded than ever as people tried to get out of the rain. I took a quick photo of the ceiling but it is grainy since it is dark in there. I had to hold the camera over my head because the crowd was so dense.


A good time was had by all. We watched the laser light show on the ceiling of Grand Central as we were leaving. We bought delicious food to eat on the train. (I had shish kebob in a pita.) Then we looked at all our treasures in our shopping bags and laughed at how drenched we were. We returned by train and discovered several inches of snow here.

Yesterday I was so tired I didn't even go to the boutique show my work was in. I see an e-mail here that says it was really successful and it appears that I did very well in sales.

Now that I am really feeling the Christmas spirit, I must decorate a little. We put out our lights and decorated the window boxes last weekend.

Happy Monday...

enjoy the day!

2 comments:

April said...

Oh Helen...what fun and excitement! I feel like I was there with you! Macys escalator has wooden steps???!!! I went on a wooden track roller coaster one time, but never a wooden escalator. Your shopping reminds me so much of when I was a little girl and my Mom would take me up to the "City"- San Francisco to see the windows and lights. And we always ended up with a hot fudge sundae at "Blums"- but never any snow, ice, or mushy rain-HAH!

Nancy said...

Oh, thank you so much for posting about your trip! I love the clickety clack of the Macy's escalator. It always seems so dangerous...and exciting at the same time. There is NO better place to "shop" than the real Macys at Christmas. We may go over the holidays. My son's girlfriend and family are going for New Years eve (which I think is nuts, but we shall see how brave we are and how much he wants to see her).

I'm not sure where that furnace from your previous post is located, but it looks familiar. My uncle did his doctoral work in Storrs, CT and we also lived in PA for several years. It looks very PA to me, but ???

So glad you had a wonderful time and a successful show.