Fall Trip #8: New York City

(Yes, NYC was both fall trip #5 and #8.)

For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to go to the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. So in my spirit of "why not?" I decided this was the year. I'm going to stray from my "top three things" lists because this trip had many more than three.

Jess and I flew out very early the day before Thanksgiving. (Props to Mark for being our chauffeur.) Before 11 am, we had already been on the Today Show (Kathie Lee and Hoda hour!), gotten cupcakes from Magnolia and done some shopping at the NBC store. A productive morning, indeed.

We met up with the Higgins family for lunch as Dos Caminos. It was fun seeing them and we had some fantastic food.

Holly and me

Then we decided we'd head uptown, where they were inflating the balloons for the parade. If you ever go, this is a must-see! Balloons line two streets as they are inflated, and we saw them all, from Santa to Dora to Mickey. The inflation is an official parade event, and there were lots of staff available to answer questions about the balloons, and in some cases, tell us what the flat ones would soon be. Along the way, we received free Tollhouse cookies from the Nestle people, who were everywhere, as well as free Pringles.

Inflating the Smurf

After the balloon fun, we walked back (in the rain) to our hotel. After a short rest, it was time for Rock of Ages. Upon seeing the list of songs on the soundtrack, I knew I would love this show, but I had no idea how much. It may just be my favorite show ever. Basically, they make a story using lots of 80s songs from artists like Night Ranger, Journey, Bon Jovi and Foreigner. Constantine, of American Idol fame, stars. They even gave us little lighter flashlights to use for the ballads.

Thursday was another early morning. We left the hotel at 6am, took a taxi uptown, then walked across Central Park to get to our parade viewing location. I'd heard that people start getting there at 6:30, but that's not true. They get there way earlier! By the time we arrived, there were no spots directly behind the barricades, so we staked out a spot as close as we could get. Looking at the other people around us, it was obvious that we were amateurs. We had no blankets, coolers, chairs, or portable DVD players. We sat on the sidewalk at 70th and Central Park West. And sat. And sat. Until someone yelled, "watch out! coffee!" Someone had spilled coffee so we had to stand up to avoid wet jeans. By this time, it was about 8:30 anyway, so it was fine. We really lucked out in two ways: the weather and the folding chairs in front of us. Had it been really cold like it has been some years, we would've been miserable. The people behind us were angry with the people in front of us because they wouldn't fold up their chairs. But that worked out well for us because it gave us a little extra breathing room and we didn't get pushed as much as we would've otherwise.

Finally... it was 9am and the parade began. It was one of the coolest things ever. And I've done quite a few cool things. The atmosphere is fun, and seeing the ginormous balloons coming down the streets of NYC is indescribable. I can't say the celebrities were exactly 'A List,' but we saw Cyndi Lauper, Carly Simon, and Andrea Bocelli, among others. Because we were near the beginning of the parade route, it finished about 10:30. So we went back to our hotel and watched the end of the tv broadcast.

We were pretty exhausted the rest of the day, but we had some excellent Thanksgiving breakfast food at Norma's - not exactly your traditional Thanksgiving fare, but I thoroughly enjoyed my omelette. Most of the shows were dark that night, but there were a few with tix available from TKTS, so we got a good deal for a play called Perfect Crime. It had a cast of four, and one lady has been playing the same role in it for over 20 years. Crazy. Anyhow, it was a fun way to end our evening.

We slept in a bit on Friday, got breakfast, and then our adventure came to an end. I thought the parade might be one of those things where you do it once and then never need to do it again. But that wasn't the case. I don't plan to go back next year or anything, but I definitely see a return trip in my future!

And that, my friends, concludes my fall trip series. What have we learned? Eight trips + three classes + work + life = serious overcommitment and a crazy few months.