Anniversary, shopping and dining

Soo with a slight delay we went out for our anniversary dinner and a little shopping while being out anyway :-)
For once I actually not only remembered our anniversary but also made dinner plans :-) and reserved a table... (yeah me :-) )...

The shopping would be at Tysons galleria which is a very nice place with a good experience. Not too many people and less of a Turkish bazar feeling when strolling around.
Even though we did try very hard we only managed to find one pair of shoes (for Jacki) at Macy's. However hectic it was I must say that sales guy was polite and very helpful. But hey buying Guess shoes you kind of pay for it. But only one pair...
After a couple of hours of browsing around we went to the corner bakery for a cup of coffee and sit outside to enjoy the good weather. It was a little windy but it is so nice being able to sit outside and actually enjoy it. And this time without the "hey mom", "hey day" every two seconds.

One thing though is the Neiman Marcus shopping experience... Sure we don't really shop there every day or well every month for that matter. So I guess it's a little special. However this was surprisingly closer to a Turkish bazaar when entering the front of the store where all the makeup is located. Several small sales island with the different brands and at each there is 4-5 sales associates (using the term very lightly) standing at the corner chatting about this and that.
Walking through there was two of the areas where someone actually took time out of their busy conversation to actually notice potential customers.
I know we don't walk around looking like we fling money left and right... and well we don't but can still afford luxury here and there if we want to. It is however our anniversary soo you know a little special thing is ok.
But we end up at a Dior island with items Jacki has been reading about for 3-4 years. I don't know much about makeup so you know I take Jacki's word for it being good and if that is special to her. Well she gets it (within the hitting the poverty line of course).
Compared to the sales person at Macy's this woman was... well let's say not my type... You have to buy this and you gotta buy that... hmm... yeah...
But Jacki picks out a nice lipstick and the woman calls over another woman to "process" the purchase (no cash registers around). As soon as the "processing" person gets the item in hand she starts questioning "how do you plan to pay for this...".
Ok... now it's not like a Turkish bazaar anymore. More like buying something out of a trunk in a dark alley. And I am thinking is this normal Neiman Marcus operations... hmm.
But well I got my good trusty Navy federal visa card. But guess what. All I get is a frown and "we don't take Visa..." quickly followed by "How about cash... do you have cash???".
At this point I am thinking Neiman marcus or not... I am not buying anything in a store that overcharge for everything, treat people bad and then not taking a visa card... Soo much for the Neiman marcus shopping experience...
If you plan to purchase something special for your loved one I highly recommend avoiding Neiman marcus like the plague and go see Macy's. You will be so happy you did :-)

ok that was my little rant about Neiman marcus which could be summed up in don't go there... ever!!!

As for dining we went to the steak house at Ritz-carlton. As bad as Neiman marcus is for shopping the Ritz is good for dining.
Your personal service couldn't be better. I lost count of how many people were there to ensure we had a good experience but we sure did. Never missed anything and were treated extremely good.
The steaks we got couldn't be any better. Cooked perfectly as ordered and well it may be out of the normal but we had the fries (hand cut) with our meal. They sure know how to cut and prepare fries too :-)
Mentioning Ritz-Carlton I know it sounds expensive but consider that we had some nice gifts from the in-laws paying a good chunk of the bill and this is a once a year event soo it's not really too bad. All in all it didn't cost us much more than we would have spend somewhere else. Only thing is that the atmosphere, live piano music and the perfect service makes it all worth it. So as much as I would recommend staying clear of Neiman marcus I will recommend going to the Ritz-Carlton. For afternoon tea, dinner or over night stay to get a little spoiled. It is worth every penny. These days you have to search a lot to find people treating you as good as the staff of Ritz-Carlton.

ohh and btw. if you missed it... Do NOT shop at Neiman Marcus