Shopping or at least Window Shopping in New York

Like yesterday, after sorting some e-mails, a cup of coffee made on the machine in the room and a refreshing shower I went to Mass at 7.45 a.m.. This time in Our Saviour's Church which is just two blocks from the hotel. It is not that I am becoming a religious maniac while on holiday, but that a friend of mine from work is adopting a child, and today is the day the child came to live with her. I'd promised to pop in to pray for her, and light a candle to represent the prayers reaching up to heaven for her and her new relationship with her son. I trust God will answer my prayers and hers.

After Mass I met Drew at Blooms. Today I had a ham and cheese omelette (with the coffee, OJ, toast and potatoes as mentioned yesterday - left). Drew had sausage (links not patties) with three scrambled eggs (and the trimmings - right).
By 9.00 we were heading off for today's adventures. Today, having focused on downtown yesterday, we were looking at uptown, but started by walking down to Macy's at Herald Square and a nice long browse through the shop and all its products. Drew was particularly amused that Donald Trump now has a clothes range. So along with the clothes brands of Boss, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Prada, etc we now have Donald Trump - still he did think about running for president. I think I'm happier that he is focused on a clothes range instead!!
Following 90 minutes or so in Macy's we went out to be greeted by temperatures in the high 80s. 88 on some occasions but fairly consistently 86 all day. Unlike yesterday it was not humid, so though it was probably hotter, our clothes weren't sticking to us. Still it meant it was best to be walking up the side of the street where the building provided shade from the sun. That is unless you are sun worshippers - neither of us are.

We walked up Sixth Avenue from 34th Street to 58th Street, while we had a destination Drew had wanted to aim for, we really wanted to get into the ambiance of New York shopping. 6th Ave, along with 5th and Madison are the major retail areas. So we looked at the range of products in various stores and generally wandered along the street until we got to 58th Street. Since before the holiday Drew had targeted going to the Apple store at 58th and Fifth due to the image on the store website, on the left in fact it looked like the image on the right. Still we went in and joined the throng of people playing with iPad 2's, Macs, iPhones and iPods.

We then walked along the bottom of Central Park, across Columbus Circle and up Broadway. and finally we found the Upper West Side Apple store which did look like this:
We went inside, it had much more space and was more airy than the 5th Avenue store, so we went and Drew played with tested some gadgets and wondered about how useful various accessories would be.
After 30 minutes in Apple we went another five blocks up Broadway and Drew found his other destination of the day - a North Face store. With Newfoundland on the horizon Drew has been thinking of buying winter clothes, in particular a quilted down filled jacket with a fur-lined hood. Thankfully, given the 86 degrees we agreed it might be better to wait until we see whether the Canadian ones are even better.
Having walked and browsed for four and a half hours we decided we needed a break and stopped in a small local food store on Broadway and had a slice of pizza each and two cans of pop (Pepsi for Drew, Sprite Zero for me).

Still feeling pretty exhausted we crossed the road and caught the M104 up Broadway to Harlam. Going from 73rd to 125th street took some time, the bus stopping at almost every intersection, but at least it was air-conditioned and we had seats. Yet more fascinating people on the bus. When the bus got to Harlem we alighted and walked along 125th until we were in the centre of the district at the iconic Apollo Theatre.
This was my first trip to Harlem, I love exploring parts of town, but it was the first time I had been above 90th street in New York. Harlem was a bustling fascinating part of town. It appeared to be much more entrepreneurial than midtown, with every other person trying to sell you something, or encourage you into their store. The architecture of the area is also distinctive. Though high rises still exist outside of the central district areas. Well worth a visit to get a feel for the place. After another hour or so we caught the M2 and traveled down from Harlem back to the New York Public Library on 41st and 5th and from there three blocks over to the hotel. I'm tired, because the day was so busy, but fulfilled that we used our time so well.