Christmas Shopping, sort of

I went downtown this morning. I still have several things to get before Christmas. I cannot blame the crowds, that’s for sure. It’s December 16 and there were very few people shopping in downtown San Francisco. It’s not good out there, folks.

I met Maggie’s class on a field trip to see the Christmas windows in Macy’s at Union Square. I was downtown anyway, so I hung out to wait for them. They came down on the streetcar, which stops about a block from the school and delivered the whole group within a block of Macy’s about 25 minutes later. Not bad. Apparently, Maggie kept ringing the bell for the streetcar to stop all the way through the subway. She thought that was hilarious. Fortunately, the driver did not stop in the middle of the tunnel.

Riding public transit with wheelchairs is a bit of a roll of the dice. Half the time the elevators to the street are broken forcing people to go an additional stop before they can get out of the subway. (They can be like Charlie on the MTA and just never return.) But not today. The elevator worked and they came rolling up Stockton Street toward Macy's where I was waiting for them.

The Macy’s windows are very sweet. The windows have the kittens and puppies from the SPCA. It is always fun to see the little animals as well as the smiles the faces on all the folks watching them. You can see Maggie at the window with the puppy named “Miss Piggy” and the kittens just off to the side.

Representatives from the SPCA are there to hand out information on folks who want to adopt animals, but they do not adopt them right there. It is too easy for someone to be caught up in the “cuteness” of it all. The SPCA does not want a person to forget that they are adopting a live animal who needs care all year, not just on Christmas morning.

The kids liked the windows, but as cute as the puppies and kittens are, they really cannot top the streetcar ride

Maggie did not have any actual shopping to do but her classmate Liz was on a mission. We went into Macy’s to make the purchase. The elevator came and we loaded the three wheelchairs on with the five adults in tow. I’ll tell you what; people get out of the way when this entourage passes by.
Trying to beat the quickly approaching rain, we dashed up to Union Square to get a picture of the group in front of the giant tree. We got it. (Maggie's in the pink blanket). The class disappeared back into the subway, and I hopped on my bus and headed home.

A nice morning indeed, but I did not get much shopping done.