We had seats on Central Park West and 75th. We were at the start of the parade. The best part being at the start was hearing the announcer invite each band and balloon to 'join the parade'. I wanted him to say 'Kristin, join the parade!' The worst part about being at the front was we only heard drum cadence from the bands, they didn't start playing until farther down the route.
The weather was perfect, it was sunny and in the low 60's! We learned that the only way to get tickets to view the parade from the grandstands is to know a Macy's employee. We were so lucky to get tickets.
We were sitting by a girl who's dad was the soccer ball balloon captain. Job well done Bill!
Here is the soccer ball balloon and
here is Bill. He pretty much has to walk backward the entire parade. It is his job to make sure the balloon doesn't run in to anything and to let the balloon carriers know when to start walking and when to stop walking.
Oh and none of the celebrities sang by us either, but we did get to see lots of famous faces including:
Singing legend Dolly Parton
American Idol winner Jordin Sparks on the Pillsbury Lovin' Oven float (really well done and cute float)
My favorite High School Musical actor Corbin Bleu (we did see Ashley Tisdale too, but I like Corbin's smile so he made it to the blog highlights)
And cute little Bindi Irwin was on a great float sponsored by Animal Planet
The balloons are pretty big moving down the street. It's a different perspective being underneath them instead of just watching on tv. One of them was pretty out of control when it started, it was a new balloon, a Sesame Street character called Abby Cadabby. She was really swaying across the road. The people on the balcony in the building across from us got to see Abby up close, real close.
My favorite balloons:
Scooby Doo
Kermit the Frog (all of his handlers were wearing vests with his signature green collar)
Super Cute Hello Kitty
And Jo Jo the Clown isn't my favorite character, but what they handlers did with the balloon was cool. She had ropes on her fingers and they were moving the fingers as they walked to make it look like she was tossing the balls in her hands.
These next balloons were kind of odd, but they were a good addition to the parade.
Pilgrims and the Founding Fathers. I don't know how these people walked the parade with a big balloon head on their head.
The Energizer Bunny put on a show for us, it did a doughnut right in front of our seats.
This performing group of tapping trees was made up of older ladies from Alameda CA. If I lived in Alameda I would totally be a tapping tree. They were performing the entire parade route and so full of energy!
And the parade wouldn't be complete without the NYC recycling and trash cans!
I bet you thought I was going to say the parade wouldn't be complete without Santa, well almost - this little elf was a signal that Santa was on his way. He was a reproduction of a balloon used in the 40's.
And finally - the jolly man we all want to see.
After the parade was over we had an easy walk through Central Park back to the apartment. We snacked and rested and then headed to a tasty and relaxing Thanksgiving Dinner at a local steakhouse.
