Day Tripping

The Proper Bostonian and I had a fun time in New York on Friday, even though we were only there for about six hours and it was kind of cold and windy. When I went alone a year ago December, I took Megabus, but this time we took BoltBus. Both are fine, and the longer before traveling you can purchase your ticket, the better the fare.

I found the seats in the Bolt buses less welcoming; the shape of the bottom cushion and the imitation leather surface made it difficult for me to find the a comfortable seating position. Also, the Bolt buses make a rest stop about halfway between Boston and New York, which adds 15 minutes to the trip. Megabus used to leave from Back Bay Station, which would have been more convenient for both of us, but now they leave out of South Station along with Bolt, as well as the Fung Wah and Lucky Star buses.

After we'd made plans to go on Friday, I learned about a J. Press warehouse sale taking place last Thursday and Friday, only a few blocks from where the bus would let us out, so I figured it was worth a look. Neither of us ended up buying anything there, but I could have: there were some very nice, American-made suits in my size, and everything was 70% off the original tagged price. Selection was hit and miss; the PB found a suit she and her husband had seen a few months back in the Cambridge store, but not in his size. They have sales like this a couple of times a year, and unlike some of these events, this one had some seriously good deals. I think the thing to do in this case, if you plan to attend one in the future, is to be there as soon as it starts on the first day for the best selection.

Our wanderings took us down to the Flatiron area for lunch at Eisenberg's Sandwich Shop, then along 23rd Street to the second location of the Doughnut Plant on the ground floor of the Chelsea Hotel. (Yum.) We then stopped at Fishs Eddy and ABC Home, where The Conran Shop now occupies the lower level. I have fond memories of the old Conran's stores (somewhat like Crate & Barrel) that used to be on Exeter Street at Newbury (the site of the Exeter Street Theatre and later Waterstone's bookstore) and in the Porter Exchange building in Cambridge, so I was pleased to check out its new incarnation. (The store had been at a different location in New York, but I never made it there.)

Heading toward Soho for the obligatory visit to Uniqlo (maybe one of these days they'll start selling online here in the US), by pure coincidence we happened to pass the site of the Triangle factory fire, which occurred 100 years ago Friday. I'd been reading the coverage in the New York Times leading up to the centennial, but hadn't expected to pass by the building itself, and definitely hadn't expected to witness a memorial ceremony taking place on the sidewalk. (If you're interested in learning more about this terrible, tragic incident, which is considered one of the key events in the history of the American labor movement and the development of workplace safety regulations, this book is a good starting point.)

After visiting Uniqlo and a couple of other stores, we walked over to St. Patrick's Old Cathedral on Mott Street (now designated a basilica by the archdiocese of New York) to light candles, then we had to hurry back to catch the bus home.