Globetrotter

     I went to the coolest store in the entire world on Saturday.  Globetrotter is the largest and most absurd outdoor equipment store I have ever been in.  It is 4 stories of expensive madness.

A modest entrance

Word of the day: stupefying

     The first thing I noticed was the sailboat in the water feature. Rad- sailing is cool.  As my eyes drifted around the store, I noticed the far corner of the pool was bubbling. Why? Scuba divers of course.  Apparently they conduct lessons in the middle of a department store, when the water isn't being used to test out your next canoe/kayak.

Backpacks everywhere.  This one had a cool stool built in. German engineering.

A giant freezer (see the Ice blocks?)

      The store is built around 100% customer satisfaction. As such, you are encouraged to demo and play with anything you may want to buy.  For example, you can test clothes by getting in a giant freezer near the jacket section.

This bike has at least 4 features I have never seen before. I think the transmission is in the bottom bracket.

      The store also had a large climbing selection.  It had the most technical and obscure tools in massive quantities. And, of course, you could try everything out. In their miniature climbing gym, which was cantilevered off the 4th floor.

Buy some rope here

      Everything had really cool displays.  In the above picture, the rope is stored in glass cabinets, but fed through the curved tubes up top.  You then cut how much you want.  For sleeping bag pads they had a giant bamboo (bumpy) floor where you could lay on the different brands to see if they worked well enough for you.

This tent didn't have poles, it had a little pump for the pentagonal supports.

When the air-stream is just too big.

 They also had an awesome "tent" that goes on the roof rack of cars. Not sure how much you'd use this, but I thought it was a really cool idea to make extra car storage have a second function.
   
The moral of the story is make sure you go to Globetrotter some day- but maybe leave your wallet at home.