Saturday, November 24, 2012

Michigan Avenue and State Street: Part Two

Our next stop on the Black Friday tour of Chicago was to see the windows at Marshall Fields on State Street. Now some might call it Macy's, but we are old fashioned!  The windows were beautiful.  Stunning really with their moving parts, lifelike mannequins, and stories that told of yesteryear.  What a gift to the city.

Mr P and Mr C were most thrilled that on this stop they would finally find a hat and gloves to bring back feeling to their extremities.  I thought the process of finding the men's accessory area in the store might just put them both over the top however.  We heard at least four different stories of where you'd find the men's gloves and took escalators, lost each other and asked again before finally finding the area nearly 10 feet from where we'd entered the store originally.  


The crowd was huge and, while the atmosphere was festive, it was a little overwhelming for the less experienced shoppers in our family.  Thankfully, after looking at the store windows for awhile, we saw the Disney Store, H&M, and Nordstrom's Rack right across the street giving us "all" a place to look around.  A few members of the family even left State Street with packages!

Taking a taxi to Michigan Avenue's Water Tower was next on our agenda; much to the thrill of Miss A and her love of public transit. (She might move to Chicago later just so she can ride public transportation!)  The crowd in this part of town was huge.  There were Salvation Army bell ringers at every store front, people walking with packages overflowing and to add to the fun, a few protesters.  


Our first  protester was angry about American Consumerism and Over Consumption.  His homemade sign on cardboard was to point out how little he consumed I guess.  The second and larger group of protesters were standing outside a Fur Salon and had signs with blood and dead animals as they shouted through large blow horns!  They were a little more serious.  Miss M, of course, got nervous that her Land's End fur collar coat would be targeted; but I told her it was Fax fur so not too worry!

Miss M found her purchase at the Macy's Soap Bar; where we enjoyed the craziness of the employees.  Let's just say they were all very happy making "Bubble Demos" with their AMAZING bubble bath wands.  Both C and I were anxious to leave as we overwhelmed with the scents assaulting our noses.  He might have even suggested we go into the American Girl Doll store with Miss A to escape.  All I will say about the AG store on Black Friday is Insane.  Miss A's wish list for Christmas grew, C and P's patience waned, and I was just shocked at all the purchases going on around me.  I thought Illinois was in a fiscal mess and near bankruptcy.

Of course no trip to Chicago's Michigan Avenue would be complete without a visit to Chocolate Corner; aka the place where Hershey Chocolates and Ghirardelli meet.

Next stop Navy Pier.

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