We were wonderfully blessed to have absolutely gorgeous weather for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade this year!
Jonas and I woke up about 5:45, bundled up (it was close to 40 degrees), grabbed some Starbucks, and walked the couple of blocks from our hotel to the parade route on Columbus Circle (.4 miles). Not sure of the best viewing point on the circle, we decided to walk a little ways up Central Park West (.2 miles) to stake our position. By 6:15 we found a front row seat. Mike, Ezra and Judith arrived about 7:15.
Since the Paris terror attacks were just a couple of weeks before, the security was amazingly thorough. In addition to score of policemen constantly roaming the street, this SWAT team parked right in front of us and about 8 heavily armed men jumped out and planted themselves about 10 yards apart on both sides of the street. They stayed for about 5-10 minutes and then loaded back up and headed down the parade routed to the next area. There were also plain clothes security guys in trench coats that came by. They made no secret about eyeing deep into the crowd, looking on the ground at bags, and surveying the area. Then moved on.
I felt entirely safe.
Then the parade started. The sun was shining in a cloudless sky and it was about 50 degrees. Perfection.
Ezra with the Sesame Street float.
Mike photo bombing our Sponge Bob selfie, but the joke's on him because it looks as if he's being eaten by Sponge Bob.
Family photo with Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon.
Santa and the end of the parade.
When the end of the parade passed us, we walked back to the hotel (.6 miles) and caught the last 20 minutes on TV. We relaxed for a hour or two then walked (.3 miles) to our lunch reservation at Georgio's Country Grill. After lunch, we jumped in a taxi that took us to the Empire State Building.
Looking over the southern tip of Manhattan and the Hudson River.
We strolled ( .3 miles) down 34th street (which was closed) to Macy's (which was also closed).
Macy's had awesome window displays! They were all Peanuts themed (which Ezra loved of course) and a couple of them were interactive. This one for instance, had a computer where you could design a Peanuts character that looked like you and put them into the scene. The character knocked on the door (there was audio) and then the door "opened" and there was your character. Ezra's character is in this picture.
This one is Judith's character. See the curly blonde hair?
In this scene, you could play the piano with Schroder. Jonas and Judith are playing.
After playing with Macy's windows, we walked to Times Square (.6 miles) and had a snack and enjoyed the surroundings.
After our snack, we walked (.3 miles) to Rockefeller Center. We took in the Christmas light show at Saks (a couple of times), lost Ezra for a few minutes (he was looking in the window of the Lego store), then began to make our way back to the hotel (1.1 miles). I included the distance to show that the kids did A LOT of walking with minimal complaining.
The next day was beautiful again, so we did a lot of walking in Central Park and exploring the playgrounds.
We found this rose petal shaped heart and took advantage of the photo op.
We walked in the Museum of Natural History, the MET, and the Guggenheim, but didn't pay admission anywhere. On such a nice day, we couldn't justify the money spent on a museum when the kids really wanted to be outside.
Our last stop was the Nintendo store.
We had to do one more run by Rockefeller Center for Jonas to see people ice skating, because they were re-freezing the ice when we came by the night before.
We had a super fun time! We were so thankful for awesome weather. That made all the difference for the parade I think. The kids really enjoyed the city!
