Day 2: Shopping until you drop 😜💸

10.4.2022

I'm getting old... that's evident from my struggle with jet lag. While the kids (13&17 yrs old) sleep soundly, and my husband can fall back asleep despite waking up multiple times, I toss and turn in bed. We went to bed at around 8 pm local time, which was 2 am for our internal clocks.

For the first time, I wake up shortly after midnight. Our neighbors are chatting right outside our door, then enter their room with a bang, turn on the TV, play music, and seem to be having a party 🤔

Eventually, I fall back asleep. Around 1:30 am, I'm awake again. Loud music from outside or from the next room woke me up. Oh man... people 😠

By 3:30 am, I can no longer sleep. The TV next door is blaring at full volume. Do they have nothing better to do at night???

I chat with friends back home and surf the internet. My attempts to fall asleep again fail. I stay awake. At 6 am, the rest of the family is awake, and at 7 am, we are sitting down for breakfast.

Typically American with disposable plates, plastic cutlery, and lots of packaging waste. It's truly unbelievable how much environmental pollution this is.

There are scrambled eggs with bacon, various types of toast, jam and peanut butter, waffles and bagels, donuts and croissants. After breakfast, we pack up and leave around 8 am towards Harriman. Our destination today:

The Woodbury Premium Outlet.

The drive takes us through not-so-nice neighborhoods in New York City, and in the Bronx, I am truly shocked by run-down high-rise buildings and the amount of trash and garbage that is littered or hanging everywhere (by the roadside, in trees, on slopes, under bridges...). Truly disturbing.

Shortly after 10 am, we reach the outlet or rather, the outlet city. Wow, it's huge 😱💸💸💸

We shop until our feet are on fire, rest at the food court for an outrageously expensive lunch (a slice of pizza for $10, a small burger without sides for $12, etc.), and stay at the outlet until dinner at 8 pm. The April weather treats us to snowfall at noon, followed by a wild mix of sun and clouds, along with strong winds at temperatures of up to 10 degrees Celsius.

After 10 hours of non-stop shopping, our feet are on fire, we are tired and exhausted, and the car is full.

Our hotel for today is the Hampton Inn Harriman just around the corner, which is much nicer and more comfortable than our Best Western dump yesterday. Our purchases fill up 2 large suitcases. It's a good thing we brought 6 suitcases (2 of them were empty on the outbound flight). That was quite a shopping spree.

Tired, we fall into bed at around 9:30 pm. What a day 😜💸🤭