Sheilaclapkin's Blog;

Sleep 12 and 13!

The train is pulling out of the Washington D.C. train station, heading for New York and memories of our wonderful visit with P & S come flooding back in abundance. We all enjoyed our day trips and you have read about some them, but I have not mentioned the ease, grace and elegance with which our hosts gathered us up after a plentiful, breakfast and out the door each day.

I neglected to mention a market called Wegmans and before leaving Prince William Co. I made a mental note to tell you that you must make the journey to visit this phenomenon called Wegmans.  When the visit to this establishment was proposed, I went along for the ride because after all we have Whole Foods, Gelson’s, Pavilions , Trader Joe’s and a few other beautiful markets in our area. I am fairly well versed on markets after so many years marketing, but I was not prepared for Wegmans. Not prepared at all. Okay, where to begin here.  First, close your eyes and imagine when you first walk into the store you see twenty-seven check out stands fully loaded with lines especially on the weekends. Tell me you have been in a supermarket with twenty-seven checkout stations. Sure you have…not.  The reason they need those check out stations is because everyone for a 50-mile radius is in this Wegmans. I have included a few photos, but they do not do the varieties and volume of this store justice at all. Skip wants me to tell you that Wegmans carries the largest variety of food you have ever seen.  The selection of cheese is not to be matched.  The selection beer has beer from every known country that makes it in the world.  They have chips made of onions, carrots, okra, green beans, of course potatoes and they are healthy, I think. The selection of mushrooms must be legendary because there are shelves of them. plain and ruffled. The meat counters are full of meat ranging from $55.99 a pound to ground  everything. One more brag, the ice cream selections can keep you selecting for a long time.  Anything you have experienced in any other supermarket, double it, triple it and or quadruple it according to your marketing experiences.

Sorry it is a little blurry.

    I wish you all an opportunity to experience a Wegmans in your future and hopefully we will get to go again, soon.

I have to dispel the fantasy so many people have, myself included that riding the rails is a wonderful and slow way to see the world from your window as the train slips across the country. Let us dispel this notion here and now. What do you really see?  From my vantage point and for the most part on this last train trip, I saw the backs of everything, and the most rundown, worst parts of town. I have included my best shots of what I saw from the train and have decided that I need not and you need not fantasize about this wonderful train trip that you will someday make across the world. Forget about it. Or, if you do go, send me a postcard.

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We are in our lovely 28^th floor room looking at the Empire State Building. It is nice to see a N.Y. trademark building from your hotel room window. We immediately dropped our bags and ran to the streets. The city is rumbling and a cacophony of sights and sounds surround you.  It is New York and it is living up to all it is meant to be for the local as well as the hoards of visitors in the tourist areas. It is noisy, with calming sounds. They are not harsh and brittle. They are sounds that just move you along in some sort of a dance.  When you notice the people walking along, you see them looking up, looking around, pointing, kicking up their heals and or dragging them, flipping their garments and their necks swiveling, hands in rapid motion which I have coined the NYC Dance. Everyone does it.  Some dance to the tune locals hear, some to the tune workers on their way to and fro hear; there are sounds of shoes clicking and clacking, material rubbing, sounds inside buildings, and around the corners, sounds from the throats of all ages, sounds from dragging luggage, squeaks and squawks from everything imaginable, motors running, fans, the clinking and clanking of work being done, and occasional honk, tourists make most questioning sounds; and there is a special energy, positive for the most part that runs in this city  which is a loud noise and the most pleasant exchange I have enjoyed anywhere. We have been to other big cities in the USA and abroad but NYC’s  energy is different, diverse, charged, exciting, electric, stimulating and thrilling.

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