My husband and I went to the "crossroads of the world', Time Square in Manhattan, on Thursday to watch the 84th annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! We arrived around 7 AM, and already the streets were lined with people trying to find a good spot to watch the parade that would begin at 9 AM. It would begin at 77th Street and Central Park West, and culminate at Macy's at Herald Square on 34th Street and 7 th Avenue. A short film clip about the parade's cherished tradition can be seen at this link. (All photos will enlarge when clicked on once and then again when they open on a new page)
It was definitely an exciting moment for us when the beginning of the parade appeared where we were standing at around 9:30 AM. We had not been to the parade in many years as usually I am at home cooking the holiday meal. We celebrated our Thanksgiving dinner earlier on Saturday this year, as our daughter was traveling to spend the holiday with her brother and his family in Colorado.
The Peanuts cartoon character Snoopy was the first balloon to pass by and big cheers rose up from the crowd for him. It's such a thrill to see these giant balloons pass overhead!
You can see the joy on the face of this four year old boy and his dad as they watched the parade go by! I can't wait till my grandsons will be old enough to see the parade with us someday in the future.
Thanksgiving and the autumn season were well represented.
The current Sesame Street cast was on this float.
It was followed by a new balloon for 2010 --The Wimpy Kid, based on the books "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" by Jeff Kinney
There were lots and lots of pink in the parade so I immediately thought of Beverly's blog How Sweet The Sound, Pink Saturday event!
More pink!
Green was well represented as Kermit the Frog balloon passed by.
A vintage 1902 Big Apple horse and carriage
As you can see it takes quite a few handlers to control the strings to the balloons. If there are high winds the decision may be made not to fly the balloons at all for safety sake. Luckily the weather on the day of this year's parade was in the forties, overcast but without wind.
SpongeBob seemed to be a big favorite with the children in the crowd.
There were lots of patriotic floats and balloons
A steamboat and it's captain...
...the ever popular Mickey Mouse passed by.
The USA Pizza Team! They were a team composed of pizzaiolos from around the nation whose skills range from baking to dough stretching to individual and group dough acrobatics.
Horton balloon from the Dr. Seuss children's book "Horton Hears a Who!"
Miss USA, Rima Fakih, wearing the white coat, was on this float.
Ahoy, pirates on the horizon!
The Oneida Indian Nation was represented by this float.
There were many, many floats in the parade as you can see by this photo mosaic!
There are an estimated 8,000 people that participate in the parade... marchers, band members, balloon handlers, celebrities on the floats, clowns, etc. The parade is watched by crowds of 2-3.5 million spectators, and another 50 million watch the parade on TV.
There were many wonderful balloons!
The 60 dancing penguins was a big crowd favorite as they were very exuberant and fun to watch! Not all the passing performance groups do anything but march by along the route until they reach the VIP grandstands at Herald Square, where they put on the performance that you see on TV. The Rockettes do not even march in the parade! So it's fun when a group does stop and do something for the crowds along the way like the penguins did.
This group of dancing cowboys and girls also put on a little acrobatic performance!
As you can see by the balloons in this mosaic the star of the parade was approaching! The girl balloon in the upper left corner is Virginia O' Hanlon with the letter she wrote to the New York Sun Newspaper's editor in 1897 asking if there really is a Santa Claus. You can read his famous and endearing answer here.
Yes! The big moment has arrived!
It's Santa Claus on his sled pulled by eight reindeers!
Santa said "Ho Ho Ho! "
Merry Christmas to all!
And to all a good night!
As the last balloons continued down 7th Avenue the parade was over and very quickly everyone went on their way to continue celebrating Thanksgiving 2010. I hope you had a wonderful holiday!
