Black Friday

Bolt's first morning in New York City was Black Friday. Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving  and while is is not a holiday, most companies (including mine) give employees the day off. Amazing!

The day in the US is essentially the equivalent to Boxing Day in Australia. It's all about the sales. I thought Australian's were hard core boxing day shoppers, but we have nothing on Americans. New Yorker's take Black Friday seriously. My colleagues spoke about lining outside stores at midnight and shopping until three in the afternoon.

The day's name originated in Philadelphia, where it originally was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving.^[4] Use of the term started before 1966 and began to see broader use outside Philadelphia around 1975. Later an alternative explanation began to be offered: that "Black Friday" indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit, or are "in the black" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping)

Bolt and I started the morning with a whirlwind tour of downtown. 9/11 Memorial. Statue of Liberty. Wall Street. Tick. Tick. Tick. She was a little disappointed by the Statue of Liberty. Is that really it? It's so small..

We then headed to SoHo to check out the chaos of the sales. I was surprised to find very few people out and about. Actually that is an understatement. It was packed, but no more packed than on any other day.... I suppose most people were at factory outlets... or sleeping after a long night of shopping!

Stores were decorated with balloons and had performances and give away's outside. Bolt scored a carry bag and some stick on nails. Another store was giving free taxi rides in brightly painted cars. With Thanksgiving over, Christmas was beginning. The stores had the decorations out and there were Christmas carols playing. I love it how New York manages to seamlessly transition from one holiday to the next! It makes for a fabulous time of year. It was great that Bolt got to see it all. She scored some boots on sale which I think made her weekend.

To celebrate the purchase, we finished the day with frozen Margaritas served in jars at Sweet and Vicious. Best Black Friday ever.