Thanksgiving in the States

My first American Thanksgiving (last year) was spent in sunny California, visiting my classmate who lives in San Jose and therefore, I missed out on "Black Friday" shopping. So this year, i said i would do the 'midnight madness' that happens at the Seattle Premium Outlets just to see what the big fuss was about. The Outlet is located about 45 minutes north of Seattle which puts it at about the midway point between Seattle and Vancouver, BC. On Thursday night, around 11:30pm, five of us gals piled into my car and we took off. We arrived at the outlets around midnight but did not get to park my car until almost 1am. The line up to exit the highway took about 20 minutes. As we were driving across the bridge over the highway, we could see the line up to exit the highway from the north (from Vancouver) - we couldn't see the end of the line. Those bright white headlights spanned out into the pitch black horizon. Basically, all of Vancouver had driven south to take part in this midnight madness. And midnight madness it was... For three hours, i walked around this outlet mall and saw crowds of people - chinese people EVERYWHERE, line ups outside stores, line ups inside the stores, merchandise scattered on the floor, mismatched shoes, piles of clothing everywhere. I didn't get to buy very much. I refused to wait in line so when i walked into a store and saw that the line up to the register wound around every table in the store, i walked right back out. The outlet wasn't the only stop that night. afterwards, we lined up at Staples which opened at 6am in order for my housemate to pick up a discounted GPS system. i had wanted to go to circuit city but the line up for that went around the entire building. At staples, I picked up an external harddrive to back up my laptop and some 1 GB USB keys. Then after this, we went to Best Buy for another girl in my car to pick up a couple of ipods. Finally when we got home, it was 9am. My housemate was going to Sports Authority to find some ice skates so i decided to go with her since Toyrus was right next door and i wanted to buy gifts for my cousins. After this, i came home and slept for about 5 hours. When i woke up, it was 4pm and my classmate from California was to arrive in an hour. Since we had an hour, my housemate and i made an impulsive trip to Target where i picked up cheap DVDs and more gifts for my relatives. I finally made it to the airport at 530pm to pick up my classmate and from there, we drove the 2.5 hours north to get to Vancouver.

WOW. i have never done such a thing before and i don't know if i would do it again. certainly not to the seattle premium outlets. I don't want to push and shove against those crazy chinese people. Next year, i might consider heading south instead to the Oregon outlets - while it's 3.5 hours away by car, there is no sales tax, no line ups because there are no chinese people coming from Vancouver!!! Otehrwise, i'll save my money and sleep in.