Hey Soul Sister

We started out on a beautiful, clear fall morning, this time past Lenox and Lee and onto the Mass Pike. It was the perfect day for a ride. Everything was calm, and there was no traffic anywhere, not even around the entrance to the Mass Pike in Lee. Lauren pulled into the shopping center just outside the Holyoke Mall around 10:30.

Our first stop of the day was the massive Barnes and Noble. It's huge, two stories, with a fully-stocked music and DVD section. It took me a while to find what I wanted. For some reason, the smaller mass-market cozy mysteries aren't in the same place as the larger cozy mysteries. After asking a sweet employee, I found the mysteries, then went downstairs and explored the music section. Lauren told me when I got outside that she found comic books she'd been looking for. I found:

Synchronized Sorcery by Juliet Blackwell

The Greatest Show On Earth, the Oscar-winning circus spectacle with Charleton Heston, Betty Hutton, and James Stewart, on DVD. (It was $4.99. If anyone knows how to do spectacle, it's Cecil B. DeMille.)

After I got out, we went next-door to Red Robin for lunch. They were already bustling, even at 11:30. We both took advantage of a $9.99 burger deal and added smothered mushrooms. She had a salad and a lemonade. I had fries and a Diet Coke. The burgers were a little flat, but the steak fries were yummy, and Lauren said hers was really tasty, too.

Headed across the parking lot next to TJ Maxx. Lauren bought clothes here. I finally found a brush intended for curls...and unlike the one I bought at Marshalls a few years ago, this one has softer bristles that should be a lot easier on my head. When I got out, Lauren was already in the car, texting Rico. Apparently, the poor guy was still so sick, he was sent home from work. Lauren promised to win a stuffed animal at Round 1 in his honor.

And on that note, that was the first place we went after we parked at JC Penney in the main mall, dodging the construction work on the sidewalk outside. Round 1 is pretty much the same deal as Dave & Buster's, with a bowling alley replacing the sports bar and more of an Asian/Japanese theme. I ran from Pac Man to Bust a Move to skee ball and Mario Kart (came in first with Princess Peach) for the next hour. I made over 3,500 points, but opted to save the majority of them for my week off at Christmas. I just got a cute Beanie Baby panda named Baboo. Lauren didn't get anything, but she did win a huge teddy bear wearing a lemon hat out of a crane.

Unlike Crossgates, the only other entertainment option at Holyoke is a trampoline park that's really more for families. We spent the rest of the afternoon in and out of stores. Lauren picked up a Marvel Lego Superhero game for the Wii U at Stateline Games and found superhero figures for Rico and herself at one of the Sports Zones. I bought a really nice, cute mini-backpack like the one I have now with Pikachu and Eevee on it, only in fall colors as my cold weather purse. 

I made my other really awesome finds at FYE. The one at Holyoke seems to be the only one that's still big enough to have a significant DVD and CD collection. I ended up with the original Broadway casts of Young Frankenstein (which I've wanted for ages - I've turned up the London cast, but not Broadway) and the short-lived Nice Work If You Can Get It and another collection of vintage Broadway music, this one from the Smithsonian. We poked around the Spirit Halloween that had temporarily replaced Burlington Coat Factory in the basement (they moved to the shopping center outside the mall), but saw nothing of interest.

Since the food court is also in the basement, we had an early dinner next. Lauren got fries and a cheese steak from Charley's. I went to Terra Nova, a Brazilian booth, and got a chicken sandwich, fries, and a cherry soda. Oh yum! We seriously need this place at one of the malls in my area. The chicken sandwich was bursting with flavor and loaded with mozzarella cheese, ham, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and avocado. The fries were the crispiest I'd ever had. Even the cherry soda tasted like real cherries. 

Since we were going out that way, we finished at JC Penney. I didn't get anything here. I'm trying not to buy more clothes. I don't really need much else, and I'm seriously running out of room. Lauren picked up some utterly adorable soft hoodies, including one that looked like Snoopy and another that resembled a teddy bear. We got turned around finding our way out before we remembered we entered through the upstairs.

The sun was going down when we finally found Lauren's car. Took the same way going home, admiring a soft golden sunset on the way. Once again, no traffic, and no trouble getting in.

Tomorrow will be our last mall visit, this time to the smaller Colonie Center in Albany.