USVI-On-Line

We are heading up this weekend to hang out with my neice and bringing my mom and 16 year old neice.

We usually spend the day roaming around all the usual places, but it is going to rain and my mom is not the trooper that we are so we are going to plan b. What is plan b? Good question.

Here are our options:
Wrentham Outlets
Natick Mall
Cambridge Galleria

what do you think? any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks

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Have you been to any of those places? And do you definitely only want to shop? The Wrentham Outlets is open-air and really spread out. Daunting. Any time I've gone there, I have bee-lined to the place I needed to go, then left. In the cold or rain, it's not pleasant.

Cambridgeside Galleria is kind of bright and noisy, doesn't have the greatest stores. Its layout is kind of confusing and it's kind of one-note. I've only been there when killing time for jury duty, or else to go to the attached hotel, which has some measure of charm, for (book) readings. Have never eaten there (thinking lunch.)

Natick Mall kind of has it all... it's got the old part, with the old mall standby's, then it's got the new part, which includes Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, and some high-end small stores like Michael Kors, Bottega Vennetta, Burberry, etc. Many more places to sit and eat a decent lunch and/or have a cup of coffee. I've noticed in the past week that they've also opened a big new "American Girl" store, which would be fun to go into, to look at all the dolls.

Parking is easy there, too. To make it really easy, you can pay 5 bucks to do the "up-close and convenient" parking, over on the new side, which is handy if you're going there on a rainy Saturday getting close to the holidays !

Of your three choices I would also go to the Natick Collection. There is both your typical mall stores and alot of high end. Love it there!

I am assuming you only want suggestions from the three options you have listed. Of the three I would choose Natick Collection. Go window shopping and maybe have an early dinner at Sel de le Terre? Here is a link to the SDLT Natick Collection menu:

http://www.seldelaterre.com/menu/index_natick.shtml

Wrentham makes me dizzy (seriously) and CambridgeSide is worn down.

Hope this helps. Of course, I did not know it was supposed to rain this weekend. Now I am bummed out!

I never eat a big lunch but I needed to go to the Apple Store and after looking at Sel de la Terre's new menu, I had to go and enjoy the "house-made potato gnocchi with wild mushrooms, roasted butternut squash and piave vecchio." It's nice to have a real restaurant at a mall, or shall I say, "collection." haha

hey X, if Mom's not getting around very well but she wants to be with you and go everywhere, do what we used to do to make sure Mom was with us, grab a wheelchair. I am not near Boston but I had to throw in my 2 cents.

Oh mom gets along just fine, but she is way too much of a diva to walk around in the rain!

Of the three you mentioned, definitely Natick!!!

Since you're in the NE maybe you have one by you so it isn't a big deal, but I absolutely LOVE the Christmas Tree Shops in Natick. They have a lot of neat stuff for such great prices.

My husband went to college in the NE so we lived in Boston for a year and the Christmas Tree Shops store was always a big hit with my visitors. I remember telling my parents that I had to take them there and my dad was like "we don't need anymore Christmas decorations" but then I explained that it isn't a Christmas store and a few hours later they had a cart full of stuff

So we went to Natick and I am EXHAUSTED. It is huge and has everything, although after 4 1/2 hours we did not see all of it.

We ended up having lunch at PF Changs, which none of us had ever been to, and we all enjoyed it. Maybe it was because we were tired and starving, but I liked it for what it was.

I want to go back with Chip sometime, we both love to shop, so that is like being in heaven.

TR- we have a Christmas Tree Shop about 20 minutes from here, it is one of my favorite places to shop!