My family watched the "Macy's Day Parade" every single Thanksgiving morning and my dad would steam bagels on the stove and my mom would tell us that she once ate bagels "straight from New York City". It's one of my very favorite family memories from my childhood, and we've kept it up, with (usually) everyone getting together for parade and bagels in the morning. So when Todd said that we were going to NYC for Thanksgiving it was one of the happiest days of my life. (It's a long list - I have a pretty happy life =)
The weather was really threatening to rain so hard that we'd be flooded out, some of the girls' NYU classes were cancelled, and there was a lot of talk of grounding the balloons for the parade. I was hopeful that it all would work out, but I did send Todd to Duane Reade to get some plastic ponchos in case we had to stand in a downpour for hours. Because I would have stood in a downpour for hours.
On Wednesday evening, we rode in a cab with Ron across Central Park to the American Museum of Natural History where they were inflating the balloons.
We inadvertently skipped over a crowd-control barrier right onto the street covered with the balloons in various states of inflation. It was raining, chilly, and crowded, so the guys carried the kids on their shoulders. This was a dangerous precedent to set, and the kids expected to be carried everywhere they went for the next week. We saw the brand new Wizard of Oz balloon, Spiderman, Dough Boy, and lots more.
It is amazing how many people can move around the City at events like this. Next time I experience gridlock walking out of a high school play with 200 other people in SLC, I'll wonder what New Yorkers know that we don't know.
When it was time to head back to Layden's house, we found that the crowd-control barriers were intended to lead us to a balloon-viewing line that snaked around several blocks and weaved up and down a neighboring street. We stayed in the queue this time and walked the 2.5 miles it took to go 1.6 miles back to the Layden's. Ron and Todd said later that they were a little nervous walking through a pretty empty kind of spooky Central Park in the dark. Jovie must have felt weird too, because she shared this jewel with Ron: "If I see someone I don't want to be friends with, I'll just stab them." I wasn't nervous, that's the luxury of being the woman with two big guys. If they weren't there, I would have been nervous enough that I wouldn't have been there.
On Thanksgiving morning, Isaac popped up in bed before 7 am and exclaimed "Oh man! I forgot to wake up early!" He ran into the kitchen to find Marsha and told her, "I'm so sorry I'm late. I just forgot to wake up." Marsha made him some toast and set him up with a Christmas movie, and assured him he hadn't missed anything.
I walked across the park at about 7 am and passed the "Imagine" mosaic, passed Tavern on the Green, and found a spot very near the barriers at 67th Street and Central Park West. The crowd started to fill in about a half hour before the parade and packs of roving clowns came by throwing confetti. The family in front of me said they woke up at 4 am to come in from Long Island and asked if I'd come far for the parade. I said I came from Utah. The mom said, "We've never met anyone from Utah. Have we, guys? That's strange. Huh."
The parade started and the windows of the apartments along the park started filling up with children in pajamas and warm adults with coffee cups.
I sent Todd my coordinates and he said he was bundling up the kids and heading out with Ron.
When Todd arrived, the crowd was about ten deep and Todd didn't want to face the wrath of parade-goers who stood out in the cold, so he stayed back and passed the kids up to me.
The balloons were very cool, the Cirque du Soleil float was the most interesting, I always love a marching band, and most of the other floats had performers who weren't performing at the time: The Roots, Kellie Pickler, Kristin Chenoweth, Ariana Grande, Fall Out Boy. It was funny to see the Ocean Spray Cranberry guys because I wouldn't have considered them celebrities until I saw them and let out a cheer, then I knew. The loudest cheers were for the Duck Dynasty float. Funny.
Here's a movie with all our photos from the Balloon Preview and the Parade: http://youtu.be/fKlPJXw0RzQ
Todd and the kids watched for about an hour, then headed back through the park to the apartment.
I saw Santa come through on a very tall float, and I stayed until the very last entry was long gone. The parade was pretty much exactly what I expected and I LOVED IT. I'd definitely go again. I'd try to make friends with someone in a high-rise apartment next time too.
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