New York's Thanksgiving Day Parade

I have lived in New York City, on the island of Manhattan, for 27 of my adult years, and in all that time I attended Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade only once, just two years ago, and boy did that make me regret not going before! I'd heard many a friend talk about seeing the balloons being inflated on the upper west side the evening before, and the incredible joy and excitement that is in the air on the day of the parade, but none of that ever enticed me away from watching the parade on television, as I have every year of my life. What a shame because I can honestly say it was one of the most wonderful experiences ever.

I polled a number of people in advance to determine where it would be best to stand. Hating crowds and not being very tall, I was hoping to find a vantage point that would afford us a fairly unencumbered view and the ability to photograph the floats, balloons, and, of course, Santa and his sleigh coming to town. I know I was asking a lot, but a girl can hope. The best advice we thought we'd received was to go up to the 70's, get on the park side of Central Park West and perch on top of one of the gigantic rocks - that would separate us from the crowd and create a good vantage point.

On Thanksgiving morning we targeted to be on the upper west side about an hour before the parade started which was a mistake. The subway left us on the west side of the avenue and there was absolutely no way to cross Central Park West; it was completely barricaded off and lined with police. We meandered north along Columbus Avenue which runs parallel to the parade route and saw the balloons queued up along 77th Street on the south side of the Museum of Natural History. Thinking we might be able to cross to Central Park if we continued walking north, we eventually came across the another queue of balloons along 81st Street. But it was still painfully evident that we weren't going to be allowed to cross to the park. We didn't know it immediately but eventually it became clear that we were smack dab in the middle of the staging area for the entire parade.

You see, the parade starts at 77th Street and Central Park West, and all of the floats and people stand at the ready along Central Park West, and the balloons float patiently together along 77th and 81st Streets. Faced with impenetrable crowds of clowns, jesters, pirates, cowboys, elves, dolls, band members, and balloon handlers, and hearing the announcers starting the parade, we stopped in our tracks and looked around, and to our immense satisfaction found that we were inside the grounds of the Museum of Natural History at the corner of 81st and Central Park West. From here we could see over half of the parade's participants waiting to be called to "Join the Parade". It was wonderful watching all these characters "before the curtain went up". We saw two cherry pies sharing breakfast from a paper bag and another one taking pictures, two brightly clad clowns dancing together under the sun, and the Raggedy Andys admiring Kermit the Frog as he turned from 81st Street.

Set back from Central Park West and 81st Street, we could watch and photograph the happenings on each with not a single soul in front of us to impede our view or dampen our joy. So we hope you enjoy the slide show of that wonderful morning - but remember it's still no substitute for the real thing. There's real magic in the air in New York, New York on Thanksgiving morning - try to experience it at least once in your life time.