FLEA MARKET DAY

We got up at 7 a.m. this morning, mostly because we get up when the cats want us to, but that's another story.  Anyway, we were on the road by 8:45 to the famous 26th St. Flea Market in Chelsea, which was very disappointing.  We had seen this on a program on PBS about fabulous flea markets, and when we got there it was reallyl lame, about 15 vendors and mostly crap.  We walked around for awhile and were ready to leave by about 9:30.  As we were leaving I realized we wereb betwee 5th & 6th , and the flea market was supposed to be between 6th and 7th.  So we went down a block, and lo and behold, there was "The Garage flea market." 

It's on two floors of a garage.  I don't know if the garage is still there during the week, but it's a pretty big flea market on the weekend.  We spent about two hours there, saw a lot of interesting things, but didn't buy much of anytthing. .   And if that wasn't enough, there was a Goodwill right across the street.  To give you an idea of rents, that which is $4 in thrift stores in Sacramento, is $8 in Manhattan.  And the store is much smaller and has less merchandise.than any in Sacramento.

This being New York, there are many women who show up, even for a flea market, dressed to the nines.  Some of them aren't anything anybody I know would ever wear, but some are really kind of cool.  The woman in the red and white outfit had done some really interesting work on the white overblouse which she bought at a reseller on 73rd.  I've been to the shop where she bought it and it's a combination of resale and some new stuff. 

 We didn't really do much more today.  On our way back to the subway, we took a slight detour through the bead district because I wanted to buy some satin cord.  You really can't believe the bead shops here.  Some of them are more like a place that caters only to the trade, others are sort of more like the kind of store that caters to crafters like me.  John was a trouper and never griped about  anything all day long.  My payment for this is that I agreed that after we go to the street fair on Columbus tomorrow morning, we will spend the day relaxing in Central Park and I won't keep nagging him to move on and do something else. 

Our big exciting Saturday night was to have dinner at Cafe con Leche (the Cuban restaurant we love) and come home and do laundry.