28 Nov 2024 - Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!
28 Nov 2024 - Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!
Here we are! One of the core reasons for this trip to NYC - Lizzie just HAD to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. So, today, we make her dream come true!
We woke at 4:00 am (yes, you read that right!) in order to get ourselves downtown and meet up with the tour group in their hotel at 5:00 am sharp. From there, we followed our guide across two city blocks to the intersection of 6th Avenue and West 50th Street where we set ourselves up on the southwest corner, facing Radio City Music Hall on the opposite corner.
Getting here at this time saw us with positions in the second row of the crowd (yes, there were people crazier than us who got there earlier to ensure they had a front row seat!) with a fantastic view of the parade route.
Now, here's the thing about major events (this parade, New Years' Eve etc) in New York City - as the crowd gathers, at some stage the police lock you all in using steel gates. This prevents crowd crush BUT - if you need to leave the steel pen you are in for any reason, you are then locked out of getting back in. So, we made sure we had toilet stops before we left the hotel, and didn't eat or drink from the time we woke up! "What's the big deal?" I hear you ask. Well...the parade starts on the Upper West Side alongside Central Park, at West 77th Street. It then turns left at Columbus Circle, then right on to 6th Avenue. The parade then continues south to Macy's Herald Square. A total distance of 2.5 miles, or 4 km!
The parade this year was the 98th parade, although it has been 100 years since the parade first started. Why was it not the 100th parade? Well, the parade was not held from 1942-1944 due to World War II.
The parade steps off at 8:30 am, and the final float arrives at Macy's at roughly 12:30 pm.
So, doing the maths, by the time the parade started, we had been standing at our vantage point for 3 1/2 hours. But wait - add another 4 hours for the parade to pass by, and we will have been standing in one spot for 7 1/2 hours!
Now, are you ready for the kicker?
When we got up this morning, it was bloody raining! Not just a fine mist, which would be mildly annoying. Oh no! I mean actually raining...and after 7 hours of standing in it, with Lizzie and I were positively soaked to the bone! More on that later.
So! Here we were at 5 am, standing in a huddled group trying to keep warm and dry, one row from the front. Despite the rain, our spirits were high because we were about the see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! It was exciting, and there was a real buzz in the air. By 6 am, the crowd where we were was about 10 people deep. By 7 am, I couldn't see the back of the crowd due to the volume of people pushing forward. We were locked in to our pens some time between 6 and 7.
Lizzie had a small umbrella, and a poncho, while I toughed it out with just my snow jacket. Thankfully, I decided to leave my expensive camera at home, and only had my phone to take photos. This was a good decision in the end because I doubt the camera would have survived that much water!
As the sun rose, the sky grew a dull and miserable grey but nothing could dampen our spirits. Shortly after 9 am, the head of the parade came in to sight, and the next 4 hours passed by in the blink of an eye!
Enjoy the photos!
And That was the end of the parade. There were a HEAP more floats and a few more balloons, but some were hard to photograph due to the media getting in the way.
As soon as Santa passed us, Lizzie and I made a bolt for it. We were both frozen and saturated, and just wanted a hot shower (MORE WATER!!!!) so we got ourselves back on the subway uptown and back home.
After a lovely warm shower we got ourselves dollied up and stepped out for a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner at a nearby restaurant called The Smith.
It was sensational!
The meal really was quite spectacular, and we had a lovely night together celebrating how thankful we both are to have found one another.
Then it was home to recharge the batteries for tomorrow's tour!!!
Stay tuned...
We woke at 4:00 am (yes, you read that right!) in order to get ourselves downtown and meet up with the tour group in their hotel at 5:00 am sharp. From there, we followed our guide across two city blocks to the intersection of 6th Avenue and West 50th Street where we set ourselves up on the southwest corner, facing Radio City Music Hall on the opposite corner.
Getting here at this time saw us with positions in the second row of the crowd (yes, there were people crazier than us who got there earlier to ensure they had a front row seat!) with a fantastic view of the parade route.
Now, here's the thing about major events (this parade, New Years' Eve etc) in New York City - as the crowd gathers, at some stage the police lock you all in using steel gates. This prevents crowd crush BUT - if you need to leave the steel pen you are in for any reason, you are then locked out of getting back in. So, we made sure we had toilet stops before we left the hotel, and didn't eat or drink from the time we woke up! "What's the big deal?" I hear you ask. Well...the parade starts on the Upper West Side alongside Central Park, at West 77th Street. It then turns left at Columbus Circle, then right on to 6th Avenue. The parade then continues south to Macy's Herald Square. A total distance of 2.5 miles, or 4 km!
The parade this year was the 98th parade, although it has been 100 years since the parade first started. Why was it not the 100th parade? Well, the parade was not held from 1942-1944 due to World War II.
The parade steps off at 8:30 am, and the final float arrives at Macy's at roughly 12:30 pm.
So, doing the maths, by the time the parade started, we had been standing at our vantage point for 3 1/2 hours. But wait - add another 4 hours for the parade to pass by, and we will have been standing in one spot for 7 1/2 hours!
Now, are you ready for the kicker?
When we got up this morning, it was bloody raining! Not just a fine mist, which would be mildly annoying. Oh no! I mean actually raining...and after 7 hours of standing in it, with Lizzie and I were positively soaked to the bone! More on that later.
So! Here we were at 5 am, standing in a huddled group trying to keep warm and dry, one row from the front. Despite the rain, our spirits were high because we were about the see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! It was exciting, and there was a real buzz in the air. By 6 am, the crowd where we were was about 10 people deep. By 7 am, I couldn't see the back of the crowd due to the volume of people pushing forward. We were locked in to our pens some time between 6 and 7.
Lizzie had a small umbrella, and a poncho, while I toughed it out with just my snow jacket. Thankfully, I decided to leave my expensive camera at home, and only had my phone to take photos. This was a good decision in the end because I doubt the camera would have survived that much water!
As the sun rose, the sky grew a dull and miserable grey but nothing could dampen our spirits. Shortly after 9 am, the head of the parade came in to sight, and the next 4 hours passed by in the blink of an eye!
Enjoy the photos!
- 1 Parade solos 1.jpg (4.32 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 1 Parade solos 2.jpg (4.41 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 1 Parade solos 3.jpg (4.4 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 1 Parade solos 4.jpg (4.3 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 2 Parade head 1.jpg (4.23 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 3 Parade turkey float 1.jpg (4.2 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 4 Parade marching band 1.jpg (4.21 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 4 Parade marching band 2.jpg (4.28 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 4 Parade marching band 3.jpg (4.19 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 5 Parade Minnie Mouse 1.jpg (3.73 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 6 Parade Minion 1.jpg (4.13 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 7 Parade bowling float 1.jpg (3.32 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 8 Parade Tennessee marching band 1.jpg (3.26 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 8 Parade Tennessee marching band 2.jpg (3.25 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 8 Parade Tennessee marching band 3.jpg (3.23 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 8 Parade Tennessee marching band 4.jpg (3.28 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 9 Parade Ronald 1.jpg (2.5 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 9 Parade Ronald 2.jpg (4.1 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 10 Parade Macys star 1.jpg (4.09 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 11 Parade marching band 1.jpg (4.2 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 12 Parade Bluey 1.jpg (4.08 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 12 Parade Bluey 2.jpg (4.1 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 13 Parade Spongebob 1.jpg (4.14 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 14 Parade Diary of a wimpy kid 1.jpg (4.13 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 14 Parade Diary of a wimpy kid 2.jpg (3.84 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 15 Parade Paw Patrol 1.jpg (4.29 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 15 Parade Paw Patrol 2.jpg (4.1 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 16 Parade Spiderman 1.jpg (4.08 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 16 Parade Spiderman 2.jpg (4 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 17 Parade Monkey D Luffy 1.jpg (4.23 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 18 Parade Kungfu Panda 1.jpg (4.04 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 19 Parade Wednesday 1.jpg (3.91 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 20 Parade Manga 1.jpg (4.02 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 21 Parade Smokey 1.jpg (3.83 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 22 Parade Snoopy Beagle Scout 1.jpg (4.14 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 22 Parade Snoopy Beagle Scout 2.jpg (4.07 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 23 Parade Dora 1.jpg (4.28 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 23 Parade Dora 2.jpg (4.03 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 24 Parade Pikachu 1.jpg (4.35 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 25 Parade Pilsbury Doughboy 1.jpg (4.16 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 26 Parade Balsam Hill float 1.jpg (4.26 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 27 Parade Santa balloon 1.jpg (4.32 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 28 Parade Santa 1.jpg (4.18 MiB) Viewed 58 times
As soon as Santa passed us, Lizzie and I made a bolt for it. We were both frozen and saturated, and just wanted a hot shower (MORE WATER!!!!) so we got ourselves back on the subway uptown and back home.
- 29 wet Lizzie.jpg (2.52 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 29 wet Scotty.jpg (2.4 MiB) Viewed 58 times
It was sensational!
- 30 Thanksgiving dinner menu.jpg (4.49 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 31 dinner cocktail.jpg (4.38 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 32 Butternut soup.jpg (3.83 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 32 truffle gnocchi.jpg (3.83 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 33 beautiful Lizzie.jpg (3.44 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 34 Turkey breast on mash.jpg (3.57 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 35 apple stuffing.jpg (3.8 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 35 roasted brussels.jpg (3.47 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 36 Pumpkin cheesecake.jpg (1.88 MiB) Viewed 58 times
- 36 Sticky apple toffee pudding.jpg (1.99 MiB) Viewed 58 times
Then it was home to recharge the batteries for tomorrow's tour!!!
Stay tuned...
- Attachments
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- 25 Parade Pilsbury Doughboy 2.jpg (4.13 MiB) Viewed 58 times
Re: 28 Nov 2024 - Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!
Gold medals to you both for endurance! The parade sounds amazing though, would be great to witness if one has the patience of Jobe! Nice that you ended the day with a nice meal , and gratitude to the love gods. Xx
Re: 28 Nov 2024 - Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!
Thanks mum. I shed some happy tears and it was so nice to make a dream come true
