The last thing Janice had read about was a street that had a lot of factory outlet stores on it (once again, how she found out about it, I do not know). So we headed back to the subway to get close. We trudged the six blocks back to the subway only to find the stop closed. We hoofed it down to the next stop but found it closed as well. We were one heck of a long way from the hotel and even further from the outlet street. As we were headed toward the third station, it dawned on me that only the Blue line may be closed. There was an intersection with the Orange line a few blocks away, so we changed directions and headed that way. Sure enough, it was open and we took the Orange to the Green, and then the Green all the way to the end and we popped back up on the street.
Once we were top side, it was lunchtime. Everyone was pretty well tired of Argentine food and wanted something different. Wouldn’t you know it, there was a McDonalds across the street. We all had the same thought at the same time. It was the best McDonalds I have had in a long time.
Next was the 18-block forced march to the outlet shopping Mecca. The number of blocks in between the subway and our destination had conveniently been left out of the any prior conversation, and I was stuck between a rock and a group of girls insistent on shopping. The 18 blocks itself was did not necessarily bother me; it was the idea we were going 18 blocks to a place whose location we were not even sure of, and once we got there, we were not sure it had what we wanted. I wisely decided to suck it up, keep my mouth shut, and go with the flow. Kristine, true to her navigational expertise, led us right the outlet Mecca of Argentina. There were shops everywhere and I could only hope the girls would quickly find what they were looking for. I did manage to catch a lucky break in that backpacks and shopping bags were not really welcome in the shops, so I was transmogrified into an outdoor storage locker and did not have to go inside. I just parked my backside on a bench and watched over four backpacks, three purses, two camera bags, a water bottle, and multiple shopping bags.
