"It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air."-W.T. Ellis
Friday was one of our favorite days of the year, the day after Thanksgiving. It all started about 20 years ago, long before Alan and I were dating, when as friends, we would go and sit at the mall and watch all the shoppers go mad with Christmas shopping frenzy. If you just sit, and watch, you will see some of the most outlandish things. One year we watched as a lady went into a Bed, Bath and Beyond with about 15 shopping bags and her two teenaged daughters. They came out about 30 minutes later with a shower curtain rod, fully extended between her two daughters, and which was now holding all those bags. Good Idea. :)
We were lucky today, we found great parking everywhere we went. Had a nice lunch at the Hillsdale Mall in San Mateo, then grabbed a Jamba Juice and drove up Hwy 1 along the coast. It was gorgeous by the Pacific today. It started out rainy and grey, but by early afternoon...it was bright and sunny. We stopped in Moss Beach, near the haunted, Moss Beach Distillery. You can feel the presence of the "Lady In Blue" no matter what day of the year you come by. I can understand why she is still haunting the beach and restaurant after more then 75 years.
Finally, we ended up in San Francisco for the shopping and tree lighting ceremony at Union Square. God I love it here, especially on the day after Thanksgiving, when everyone is happy and the energy is high. The adults carrying pretty, holiday decorated shopping bags, and the children enjoying the street performers, like the Robot Woman, and anticipating the lighting of the Macy's Union Square Christmas Tree. An 80 Ft, Douglas Fir, brought in from the base of Mt Shasta, decorated with traditional Christmas ornaments, and more than 140,000 bright lights...it is a true holiday treat.
I had some fun starting my Christmas shopping for this year, we visited Fendi, Macy's, World Market, Chanel, and Saks. I gazed into the windows of the fabulous art galleries, the Xanadu, which is housed in the only building in San Francisco that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The Post Impressionist Gallery and the Caldwell-Snyder Gallery. Then to finish the day we drove past the marquees of the Theatre district. The Curran and the Golden Gate, just to name a couple. I love the theatre district in San Francisco. It has it's own energy. Sigh, I was too tired to stay for the tree lighting itself...sigh. I know that I will be really tired tomorrow, but I couldn't miss today,sometimes I love the feeling of being alone in a crowd.
-OndineMonet
"Union Square Tree"
San Francisco, California
November 25th, 2005
Late Afternoon
