Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Highlights

I have a ton of pix from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade (did you know it officially marks the start of the holiday season - I didn't know, but I was told several times while watching the parade).

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.

Where's Beckham?

The other day Beckham was sleeping on the bed. He was so tired, but all of sudden I noticed he was missing. Where is Beckham, I thought to myself - then I saw the lump under the covers.



I found him!

Roxy Girl

The Rockettes were originally name "The Roxyettes".

Here is our favorite Roxyette.

Busy Saturday

Last weekend was busy with all kinds of errands and some fun stuff too. It's so close to Christmas I feel like I need to be busy with something all of the time. (I know, it's the same for everyone.)

I started out an Union Sq and picked up some fresh produce. The Green Market was packed, I'm guessing lots of people shopping for Thanksgiving dinner. They some funky veges - along with the 20 different types of potatoes there were purple and white carrots, purple and yellow cauliflower, and black turnips.

After that I walked up to Angelo and Maxie's Steakhouse. We're eating Thanksgiving dinner there and I wanted to double check the menu. Here's what I'm having for Thanksgiving dinner:



Hopping on an uptown subway, next stop Grand Central Terminal. I picked up a few transit related items and then met Michael. We took the Metro North to the New York Botanical Garden to see some fall colors.

The Botanical Garden's natural forest had some good color. (All of the 'artsy' shots are Michael's - of course.)







Look through the fencing and there is a little tiny KO!


Normal size KO.

Leaf debris.

The colors are so much more vibrant in person.

Along with acres of natural forest, the NYBG also has a huge conservatory with rotating displays. Right now they are celebrating the Japanese art of growing chrysanthemums.

These cascades of blooms take 9 months to grow.

The giant single stems are as large as dinner plates and take 6 months to grow.




And the most impressive, these giant bushes are all grown from a single plant. They take 11 months to train and grow. This one has almost 300 blooms.

Fall bonsai!

The San Francisco Treat

We spent last weekend in San Francisco. Michael was there for the big USC vs UCB (UC Berkeley) game, I was there for Nordstrom (OK and the game too)!

We flew in late Thursday night and just stayed by the airport at a bargain hotel the first night. The bed was so uncomfortable - it was had really flat pillow, a hard mattress, and thin scratchy sheets. But they did have a free shuttle to and from the airport and a complimentary breakfast. Aside from the bed it was just fine (for one night).

Friday we headed to Union Sq on BART. It's so nice BART has been extended out to the San Francisco Airport, very convenient.

The weather Friday was beautiful, in the 60's and mostly sunny. NYC was in the 40's - being able to walk around in a light jacket was a treat. We checked in to our hotel and were able to get a room at 11am (way to go Union Sq Hilton). From there we headed to one of our favorite's - Swan's Oyster Bar. This hole in the wall luncheonette and seafood shop is fantastic. They have about 20 counter seats and a permanent line. The seafood is incredibly fresh, everything is simply prepared and the family run establishment offers great service. We feasted on fresh Blue Point oysters, seafood cocktail, and chowder.

Post lunch we headed down to Fisherman's Wharf so I could visit Ghirardelli Square. Just a small bag to take home (it's right next to Michael on the bench). They have an eggnog flavor chocolate - if you like the nog you'll love this! (And speaking of Nog - Silk brand Soy Milk has their Nog on the shelves already. Hello holidays!)



If you look in the background you can see the Golden Gate bridge. I kept calling it the San Francisco bridge (I don't know why) and it was driving Michael crazy. One would think the Golden Gate is pretty easy to remember.


We didn't hit the real touristy area of the wharf, but we did catch a ride on a cable car.

Look at the fancy tickets you get when you board down by the wharf. They just tear off a small section on the end and then it becomes a souvenir postcard.

While we waiting to board the cable car, we were at the end of the turn around. It's pretty interesting watching them manually turn the cable car around at the end of the line. At least it was more entertaining than the crazy guy playing guitar at the front of the line. Well he wasn't that bad, but he wasn't that good either. SF really embraces the crazies - they are much more aggressive than the NYC crazies.

We ended up in the middle of the car and really had no view, but we rode to the end of the line and I was right across the street from my favorite Nordstrom! I shopped for a few hours and Michael went somewhere - I'm not really sure, I was focused on one thing only.

We went to an early dinner at a really tasty Mexican food place that was part of a 'Best of' list on City Search. I never really know about these kind of lists, but we hit a home run. After table side guac with fresh house made mini corn tortillas, scallops, chile relleno, steak topped with chile and goat cheese and churros filled with caramel cream sitting on top of dulce de leche ice cream we headed back to the hotel.

The hotel had an awesome restaurant and bar on the 46th floor - what a view of the city. Some friends of Michael's drove in from Sacramento and we had a fun night drinking and dancing on top of the city.

Saturday the rain started. I had my rain hat, rain coat, and Crocs - I thought I was all weather girl. I was wrong. Eventually everything was soaked and we were pretty miserable. If we look shiny in the photo below it's because we're wet! We left at half time, and by the 4th quarter we were warm and dry in front of the t.v. in the hotel room.

Another one of Michael's friends from Sacramento invited us to a tail gate. It was a great tail gate! They even had someone preparing bananas foster - with the flambe! And right across from us was Adam Duritz (lead singer of the Counting Crows). While not all UCB fans are nice, this was a great crowd and they didn't mind letting a few USC fans get a good pre-game meal.

The Crocs were great in the rain. My feet were wet, but not soggy and the traction was solid. I didn't lose my footing at any point during the evening.

The rain stopped by Sunday morning, in time for us to head home and not get soaked on the way to the BART station.

See you in two years San Francisco!

NYC Marathon 2007

Last Sunday 39,000 ran 26 miles 385 yards through the five boroughs of New York to complete the New York Marathon.


The Upper East Side is home to lots of marathon activity. We walked just a few blocks east to see the runners going up First Ave.

It's a big party for the people not running. The streets are lined with people clapping and cheering. Lots of people put their names on their shirts and people will just randomly yell encouragement along the way.



We were right by mile 18 and an official timer - at this point the marathon the leaders were across the finish line but the majority of the runners were still on the course. (Lance Armstrong was already across the finish line too.)

It's really big party for the people not running - look at the people on the fire escape, yes the shiny things are a stack of beer cans! They also had a bull horn and were cheering for the runners.

After lunch we headed west and watched the runners going down Fifth Ave. They are just about to enter Central Park. They just have a few miles left at this point.

It was amazing that so many were running. I kept telling Michael next year we are going to run it - we'll see how that works out!

And it was a perfect day to debut my new winter hat!

Back view of the new hat.

Welcome Back Mel

The fires in California and the cold weather in New York could not stop Mel from her second visit to NYC. She braved the rain, cold, and cats for a great weekend of shopping, eating, and drinking.

While I didn't take too many (OK any) photos during her visit I did manage to snap a photo of the towel animal that graced her (inflatable) bed.

Mr. Peanuts was on the bed and looking oh-so-cool in my knock off Channel shades. (On cruise ships they love to use your sunglasses as a prop for the towel animals, I didn't think of that on my own.)

There is no other photographic record of the weekend, so you'll just have to take my word for everything. (We got smart this time, no pictures to tell the tales we don't want to be told.)

Mel arrived late Wednesday evening. Because we are such fine hosts we took her out to our local diner for dinner. Our waiter was a real character and the grilled cheese and fries did not disappoint.

Thursday was a working day for Michael and I, so Mel ventured to Soho solo. I love shopping in Soho, I was quite jealous to be working knowing she was spending the afternoon wandering through the streets and finding fabulous places without me.

Mel and I met up for dinner (Michael had a work event to attend) at Perilla. Perilla is Harold Dieterle's newly opened restaurant (for those of you not up on your reality t.v. Harold was the winner of Top Chef, Season 1). The restaurant was small but the tables were well placed - it was full by the time we left but didn't seem over crowded. The food was outstanding. The menu features seasonal ingredients and the preparations combine interesting flavors that are different but pleasing. We both started with a salad they were fantastic - mine had currants, arugula, endive, and grilled pears in a spicy buttermilk dressing. Mel's salad had Maytag blue cheese and other tasty things that I don't remember now. For dinner Mel had the black truffle ravioli - they were in a kind of white wine/butter sauce and topped with asparagus. The heavy flavor of the ravioli was complemented by the light almost sweet sauce. I had the grilled scallop appetizer and the side of spaghetti squash. The scallops were perfectly cooked with a lightly caramelized crust, they were sitting on a tangy white sauce that was creamy and delicious with a bite of scallop. The spaghetti squash was outstanding, mixed with butter and pepper I ate the entire dish. I can't wait to take Michael - it was a great meal.

Post-dinner we ran right in to a film crew. I was really hoping it would be Sex in the City, but it was Cashmere Mafia. It stars Lucy Liu and is supposed to have a November premier date on ABC. We stayed for quite a while but really didn't see much of anything. I still love watching though, it's the anticipation of wondering who we will see or what is going to happen next. Plus it seems infinitely more exciting than my job. Eventually we met up with Michael, post-work event and spent a few hours out with the work party crowd. It was an interesting mix of people and Mel can go home with some stories of suave and refined big city guys.

Friday was the main event! Lucky Shops 2007! Lucky Shops is a two day shopping event held annually in NYC. All kinds of vendors are brought in to one area and they offer special deals to the Lucky shoppers. I went last year and had a blast, I was able to get some amazing deals on high end merchandise. This year it was great to have a shopping buddy to help me decide how best to spend my fashion dollars.

We started off the day with a high-fashion warm up. A special tribute to to Grace Kelly was being held at Sotheby's, to mark the 25th anniversary of her death. The auction house had an incredible display of her gowns, jewelry, letters, and family photos. She was a true style icon.

After our inspiration from Grace, we headed right to the Lucky Shops event. We started off with a bang - we each got a pair of the awesome Michael Kors wedge heels.

I also purchased these little Michael Kors flats - so I can run around the city and hustle for the subway.

After a few laps through the vendor booths we also both ended up with these awesome green and well padded peep toe wedges.

We also both fell in love with and bought this little number:

It's a good thing we live on opposite coasts now, we don't have to worry about going to work in matching outfits!

From the same designer as the green dress I found this adorable frock (and Bex this might work really well on you):

Both dresses are made form an incredibly soft cotton knit that will be great for packing and totally comfortable too.

My favorite purchase of the day is this amazing Catherine Malandrino dress:

It's comfortable, it's fun and really easy to wear. As an added bonus I can dress it up for going out to dinner or pair it with a wide black belt and boots for wearing to work. (Hello IOM SD - you can bet I'll be wearing this when I'm out in December.) I absolutely love it and if it wasn't for Mel I'm sure I would have passed it by on the rack.

Mel got a great deal on a pair of Siwy jeans (Kate Moss' favorite brand - yeah, I didn't even try them on). They have great pockets and fit Mel perfectly. She also got a really cute winter white wool coat. She just has to keep it away from Chandler's sharp little teeth!

We tried to take advantage of everything the shopping event offered, we sipped some free cocktails (they all had great names like Passion for Fashion), enjoyed a free hand massage and head and neck massage. We waited until the end for the massage and it was the right call. After a long day on our feet carrying packages the 15 minute back and neck massage was awesome.

Once we got home Michael put out an impressive array of snacks and we relaxed with a big glass of butterbeer. (For all of you Harry Potter fans I found a recipe for butterbeer which tastes exactly how you think this drink should taste -and it's really simple, butterscotch liqueur and cream soda. I even used diet cream soda and it was perfect.) It was raining so we kept our dinner plans simple and had sushi at one of our local favorites.

Saturday was a quiet day. Unfortunately it rained for most of the day. We started off with lunch at S'mac. They serve 10 different types of macaroni and cheese (and that's it). Mel and I noshed on three different varieties: American, Italian, and Greek - all with a crispy crumb topping (of course). The American was your classic yellow mac n' cheese, it was tasty but not the best. Least favorite was the Greek, it was creamy goat cheese with olives and spinach (so it was healthy) - unfortunately the olives were too strong for the rest of the ingredients and their flavor was too dominant in the dish. Hands down our favorite was the Italian, it had mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, basil, and a hint of garlic. Just writing about it now makes me want to go there for lunch tomorrow! I'm glad it's not too close to the apartment, I can't afford the carbs and calories to eat like that very often.

After S'mac we had to go to the floor of shoes at Sak's Fifth Avenue. It's so big it has it's own zip code! The best surprise of the day - our beautiful Michael Kors wedges were being sold at Sak's for 5x the price we paid at Lucky Shops! Talk about a shoppers high! I did find the most beautiful pair of Stuart Weitzman pumps that would look perfect with my Catherine Malandrino dress. I tried them on, but did resist the urge to take them home with me.

After Saks and few cocktails at Oyster Bar in Grand Central Terminal we met up with Michael and one of his college buddies for dinner at Artisanal. Artisanal is a French bistro that has it's own fromagerie on-site. Dinner was great, but the service wasn't fantastic and we decided although it was quite similar to Balthazar we liked Balthazar better. Mel and I shared the classic Swiss fondue - it was heaven, more cheese and bread. For dinner I had a bowl of the onion soup, a perfect brown broth with lots of onions and topped with what else - a toasted slice of bread covered with cheese. Sometimes onion soup can be salty, but this was perfectly seasoned and tasted very rich. Mel had the octopus salad, which she quite enjoyed. The boys shared an appetizer of steak tartare (Michael prefers the craftsteak version). And for dinner they both had some kind of steak, I don't really remember.....I was paying attention to my soup!

We went to the village after dinner and watched the pre-Halloween party parade. Lots of bees this year. After a stop at our new favorite local pub we headed home.

Sunday was culture day. We headed to the Natural History Museum. The Zooeum has some impressive collections and did not disappoint. For dinner we at at Carmine's. Gordy and Linda introduced me to Carmine's and it was perfect for a Sunday dinner. It is rustic Italian served family style. If you had an Italian grandma that made a big family dinner on Sunday, it would taste like the food at Carmines. We started with the Caesar salad and then moved to the portobello mushroom parmigiana. It was portobello mushrooms covered in marinar sauce, mozzarella cheese and baked in the over. It was so good, I'm totally plan to make my own version for dinner this week. For dinner we shared the 4 pasta special that included, manicotti, vege lasagna, penne in vodka creme sauce, and gnocchi in bolognese sauce. Our leftovers were enough to feed Michael and I Monday night and I had lunch for two days.

Monday morning the fun was over and Mel headed to the airport. Now we just need to make sure we won't wear the same outfit to the cookie exchange in December.

Among the fabulous hostess gift she gave me, my current favorite is this book:

It is packed with recipes for home made infused liqueur and drink recipes. I can't wait to put it to use!