Malls Day

Jersey Gardens Mall! We had a few vacation days that rolled over into the new year that had to be used before the end of March. With Covid still preventing longer-distance adventures, we decided to at least travel up to the mall for a free day. I've already posted pictures from the Ikea but these are from mall and stuff.

This is the difference between random Thursday in March and... every weekend ever. Look at all of these parking spaces! Typically on a Saturday every space here would be filled, and tons of cars would be sharking around the lot looking to gobble up a space as soon as it's empty. The pro-tip is to park on the other side of the mall next to the movie theatre, but today we can park wherever we want!

The sign says Cohoes but there were all kinds of signs that said "Burlington" inside the store. You can zoom in and see it on that hand-washing table in the front there. Did the Co-hoes sell out to Burlington?

Glanced over and saw this anime-looking shop down there. A new shop... these days? It's been over a year since we've been here last time, I certainly do not remember this store. Extra respect for them to open a new shop among the Covid restrictions. I have a few pictures from inside there in a little bit, we can't jump down there right now.

Always nice to take an "establishing shot" so here's a picture of.. the mall. It's like playing Dungeons & Dragons in real-life. Explore the maze, find some treasures!

Lego Store! Giant light-up display with this llama guy. Seeing this reminds us that we did buy some of these Vidiyo theme figures a while ago and we still have not downloaded the accompanying App that plays videos or something. Am I a slacker? Or is it okay to be a slacker about a silly Lego App?

Jersey Gardens Lego Store is doing the build-your-own-figure like this. Pick numbers on a list. No fingers in bins! I remember we did this type of thing at a hamburger place, where you pick toppings off of a list, checked-off on a paper menu.

It was near Easter time, they were giving away masks that matched the bunny head hat. There was a pile of them, and we felt a little bad for the bored employees, so we acted like we were super excited to get one. Are we really going to wear that? Hahaha... no.

They also had the pick-a-brick wall by-numbers. Will they also carefully stack them in the most efficient way or just scoop 'em up? Eh, either way it's nice to still have an option in these times where hands cannot go into bins safely.

I'll be there for you! Clap-clap-clap-clap! Keychains from the TV show Friends. They made a coffee shop set for them a while ago, and now you can get each of the 6 friends as a Lego minifigure keychain. We got a Rachel since that's the figure that most closely resembles the character on the show. My friend says it has nothing to do with headlights, whatever that means.

I'm going to guess that this mask on this Clone Trooper did a good job confusing the Battle Droids long enough to gain him an advantage. Even the droids would be like "Why is he wearing that bunny mask???"

Made it down to the lower level, so let's check out this new store. Rilakkuma in the window is soooo big you could take a nap on him! Who has space in their room for that?

My nerdy friend wants to point out that this Transformers game says "Generation 2" under the logo, but clearly Optimus Prime and Starscream are from Generation 1. Unless... there's a difference? Is he not nerdy enough to tell the difference? Those are the G1 artwork pictures of them, right?

Japanese snacks! Because where else are you going to find yourself some shredded squid? Mmmmm... MMM! Shredded squid!

Those super hero fruit people looked cool. It does "illustrate" the point that even if you can't read the package, there is some level of artwork appreciation to be had with a nicely-designed fonts and stuff.

Is this a My Little Pony rip-off, or an Elsa from Frozen rip-off? Kind of fun to see them together like this anyway. I'll also point out that the Alicorn pulling the cart is wearing a crown, while the Not-Elsa is... not wearing a crown. Yes, Alicorn is the term used for a pony that has both a unicorn horn AND pegasus wings.

There were more funny Disney Princess knock-off figures. Here's some riding those hoverboard things. This Not-Elsa is wearing a much-more-revealing outfit! Of course, she's not worried; the cold never bothered her anyway.

This mist-thing kiosk had a cloud around it! We braced ourselves for when we had to pass by it, but honestly it smelled pretty great. We were expecting that typical flea market incense-type smells, but these were sweet and flower-y. You know how in the cartoons the scent cloud forms a hand and it pulls you towards it? I think that was really happening!

Hahaha Covid shirt. Even Bruce Lee thinks it's funny.

Driving away from the mall, to.. the other mall. Stopped at light and saw this. We were fast enough to get a picture of it before we had to move again. QuickChek using actual swear words on a billboard? Best DAMN Sandwich? That's not cool, right? Mommy, mommy! I want the best damn sandwich! Where did you hear that!?!

On the other side of the street is a fire station with a metal sculpture fireman outside of it. How lucky that we got both of these pictures in time! Or... that was a really long traffic light!

There's a couple of other malls on the way back from Jersey Gardens, We stopped first at Woodbridge Mall. This Sears was closed so over here it looks kind of post-apocalyptic. With some small cosmetic changes, it could be used as a movie set for maybe a base on an alien planet or something.

Hmm... There's a no-firearms sign on the door, but somehow this makes me feel less safe. Like, is that a problem, and they need a sign to tell people?

Grogu doormat! Our doormat was wrecked last winter when they plowed the snow in front of our door, so we need a new one. While this is super-cute,  nobody visits us anyway. Who would see it?

The FYE store still had that limited-edition Jollibee POP! Figure, I didn't ask again how much it was since I remember it was several hundred dollars last time and seriously ain't nobody got money for that, which is why it's still here. They even opened up a real Jollibee restaurant near this mall recently.

A lot of stores were empty but had displays advertising other stores. Here's a throne from a place called Castle Furniture. Where's the castles around here that need furniture? I have to admit, that chair would look totally awesome wherever you put it!

Just admiring the fountain in the mall. It was getting pretty late and we're a little explored-out at this point. Let's just get a picture and admire the fountain later.

There's the Castle Furniture place. Looked like it was full of awesome-looking crazy stuff. But we were starting to feel a little tired and there was still one more mall on the way home. We had already walked all around the Ikea today, too. Maybe next time we get up here we can grab a bunch of fun pictures from in there.

Empty circle. Wonder what we missed out on. Guess it wasn't much since it's not there anymore. Whatever it was, it left a nice circle-shaped stain on the floor. Which was interesting enough to get a quick picture of. We passed on the crazy castle stuff, but got a picture of this? Wow, we must have been tired.