Mermaid Parade (and a quick visit to the garment district)

Mermaid Parade was lots of fun again this year! I got a lot of compliments on my fin configuration though everybody kept calling them boots. I hadn't thought of building the fins onto boots, which would have totally worked but been HOT. It was a warm day with plenty of sunshine and no rain, which is really the best you can hope for. It was cold and drizzly the first year I did it (and then poured after the parade was over), so every year that there's sunshine is a good year in my book. You can see all my photos here.

Of course while I was in NYC I had to stop by the garment district. I took the Eastern Travel Chinatown Bus ($36.50 roundtrip when booked online in advance; the extra $1.50 is totally worth it to have reservations) up to NYC on Friday. I wasn't meeting my friend until 6:30 so I had to schlep my suitcase around with me. This was good because it restrained my fabric buying exuberance. I checked out Chic, Spandex House, Paron, and the store that took over the old Paron location. I only bought at the first two stores. For the first time ever I found nothing at Paron! I would have liked to have found more than one woven cotton print, but I didn't want to haul my suitcase into any more stores so I headed off to Bloomie Nails (which I found through yelp) for a mani-pedi.