Shopping in New York

Shoe shopping, lunch, chocolate, wine and hanging out with the girlfriends? I can't think of a better time!

On Saturday, May 17, I got to hang out with some cool women during a bus trip to New York organized by Reston Limousine. It was a long day, but a fun day. We left Tysons Corner at 7am and arrived back ground 11:30pm.

The ride up was awesome. I got to meet some fabulous women, all friends of the amazing Kristina Bouweiri, CEO of Reston Limousine. Many of use are business owners and moms, which made for some fun conversation.

We got dropped off at Canal Street around 11:30. Yes, we were hungry, but we had more important things to do. Our first stop was Shoegasm (yep, that's the name), where I bought a pair of purple ballet flags and a cute pair of black and gold sandals (a little more bling than I'm used to). Next up, Shoefinity, where I bought a pair of lavender Merrill walking shoes. (Did you guess I like purple?)

Next up, handbag shopping. Most of the group ventured into a secret basement shop to hunt for Pradas and Guccis, but I was too claustrophic. I wandered around Canal Street and got a wallet and Sponge Bob watch for my son.

After all that shopping, we were famished. The group split into two. The first group went for an Italian lunch. My group went for Chinese since I never get great Chinese in the DC area. Michelle led us to a great hole in the wall where we had a veritable feast for $25 per person. We had crab, duck, scallops, fish, noodles, beef, and soup. We even had bubble drinks from next door.

It was still early, so we hit some more shops. We hit a couple of sample sales, wandered around the discount department store Century 21 and even got to see Ground Zero. After that, we headed to Soho, where I got an amazing deal on a Cleo and Patek purse and wallet. Seriously, I bought the most beautiful purse I had ever seen and it was 60% off. The store manager said sales are way down and they are forced to discount.

Our day ended at Te Casan shoe store. This has to be the swankiest shoe store I've ever been to. The store carries 7 lines of designer shoes, many of them limited edition. Did you know that Natalie Portman has her own line of vegan shoes? The shoes start at $275 and I had already bought 3 pairs elsewhere, so I was able to resist the temptation.

After Te Casan, we grabbed some hot dogs for the road and headed home. The bus ride was long, but Kristina treated us to a movie (Maid Money, total chick flick), wine and chocolate covered graham crackers. We slept, we chatted, we shared our food, and we passed around the goodies we bought.

I was a waste of space on Sunday because I'm not used to all that activity in one day and I'm definitely not used to being up so late anymore! But boy was it fun! Reston Limousine organizes New York trips once a month. I'll definitely try to join another trip in the Fall. Fun times!

Big Feet

On Saturday morning, Maki, CJ, mom, dad and I headed to Tsukuba to attend Maki's elementary school reunion. Jonathan, Tree, Kevin, Dave and Sue headed out to Ginza and then the Imperial Palace for the day.

We had a few hours to kill before our train to Tsukuba, so mom, dad and CJ went to a jidokan, or Children's playground in the neighborhood. Maki and I headed to Tokyu depato, since I was desperate for a new pair of walking shoes. It seems that my choice of loafers wasn't up to the job of walkin around Tokyo, with its miles of subways and stairs.

Good thing Maki decided to hang with me for a few minutes. I found a couple pairs of Ecco shoes that looked cute but practical. The saleslady asked me for my shoe size, but of course, I didn't know, since Japanese sizes are different from US sizes. Another saleslady arrived to measure my feet. After measuring my feet, the saleslady conferred with another saleslady, and then another. There was a lot of bowing and explaining to Maki, who then explained to me that the store did not carry my shoe size. Whoa. I wear a US women's 8 1/2 medium. I'm hardly a bigfoot, but I guess in Japan, I'm enormous. Come to think of it, I'm taller than most Japanese women and certainly a lot bigger.

Anyway, to make a short story long, we decided to try several pairs of the largest sizes they did have -- 24. I hit the jackpot with a cute pair that actually fit really well. Even though I now feel like a sasquatch, I'm happy with my new Eccos and my feet thank me for the new purchase.