Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

We made it! I've been wanting to go now for several years and this year we went! I booked a hotel that was only two blocks from the parade route. We drove to Philadelphia and took the bus from there to New York City. The Thornton Family joined us for our adventure and the boys all really had a great time together!

As always with our zoo, it was NOT a boring trip! We drove to Philadelphia on Wednesday morning. A friend of ours had suggested cheap parking near the bus station. Upon arrival, we unloaded the van and headed over the four blocks to the bus.

When we arrived at New Century Travel, we were in for a small surprise. It was located in Chinatown and run by people who barely spoke English. Not a big deal! It was just a little strange to be the only white people on the bus who were white. The boys were all good on the two hour bus trip to the Big Apple.

When we arrived in NYC, we didn't unload the bus fast enough for the bus driver. He yelled at us to "Get off bus now!" while we were trying to round up five small boys and luggage. Needless to say, we managed to leave Heathen #3's backpack on the bus. The only casualty of this loss was the stuffed snack inside. Fuzzbutt will be missed (and only replaced if Heathen #3 remembers...)

In the Big Apple, we all slung on our backpacks and hiked the few blocks to the subway. The Asst. Zookeeper managed to really irritate the locals as he was buying five tickets at the automated machine - swiping the card and entering the pin number for FIVE separate transactions.

We took the subway to our hotel and spent about 45 minutes in down time. Then we met up with the Thorntons in the hotel lobby and headed back to the Subway! We were going to see the balloons being inflated for the parade.

The map we had for the subway was really little. And none of us had been to NYC before. It took us three trains to get to the right location. The boys all thought it was a great ride!

Upon arrival at the balloons, we joined the huge crowd that was viewing the balloons. There were nets over the balloons to hold them down. It was amazing how huge the balloons were!

While planning our trip, we joked of having Thanksgiving dinner from a street vendor. We did have hot dogs while viewing the balloons. They were ridiculously expensive. We decided that the vendor was just pulling numbers out of the air.

The next morning, Bethany and I headed out at 6:30 to secure places for us to watch the parade. It wasn't nearly as busy early as we thought it would be. We found a place to stand beside the Carnegie Deli. The Asst. Zookeeper and Ron took care of bringing the boys down about an hour before the parade.

The parade was just amazing. There is no point in watching it on television - it is not close to the true experience. The costumes were phenomenal and the balloons were breathtaking.

The boys all had a wonderful time. I can't wait to go again!