Day 15 in New York

Today we headed straight to The Strand bookstore at Union Square to see if I could organise to get a signed copy of a book that is being launched there tomorrow. I would go to the event myself but unfortunately we had already booked flights to Niagara Falls before I found out about the signing. For those of you who don't read my book blog and have no idea what book I am talking about, David Leviathan and Rachel Cohn, who co-wrote one of my all time favourite books Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, have written another book together and I would have loved the chance to meet them and get a signed copy. Anyway, the point is we visited this store and oh my gosh it is an amazing bookstore. The store wouldn't reserve me a signed copy (you can do that online but where would I get it shipped to, I leave on Sat) but said they should have some copies in store on Wednesday. So I am going back on Wednesday and I plan on spending a lot of money on books there (well actually Christie is giving me a limit). Once again, I digress. This store is amazing, it has every book you could ever want! I would come back to NYC solely for this store. And the young adult section? Massive! Three huge alcoves filled to the ceiling of lovely, lovely books, many of which are not released in Australia.

There were 3 of these, going much higher, all filled with YA books!

I'm sorry if that bore you all but it is very important to me so you just have to deal with it.

So next we caught the subway to 5th Avenue and visited the mind-blowing, famous toy store, F.A.O. Schwarz. This is where Tom Hanks danced on the giant piano in the film Big. While we didn't do any dancing ourselves, it really was the coolest toy store. I wanted to buy all this stuff and I don't even have a kid to buy for. Nat, I swear, if I had more room in my suitcase, Hannah would be getting half the store!

You can have your very own big piano for US$250,000!

After leaving F.A.O. Schwarz, we went to...Tiffany's. I was one of those girls who never really understood what the big deal was about Tiffany's. I am no longer one of those girls! Chrisite bought herself a beautiful bracelet and I am eyeing off a necklace which I hope to go back and buy with mum when she buys her bracelet in 2 weeks time. It can be a nice mother-daughter experience!

Christie's special purchase

The rest of the afternoon consisted of wandering around 5th Ave and also the streets around the financial district, where we went back to Century 21 (where I bought another bag). So that was our day. Tonight is going to be an early one as we have to be up at about 4:30am to get out to the airport for our flight to Niagara Falls!