The Parade

New York City is only about a four-hour drive from DC, so we've been talking about making a trip up there with the kids. It made sense for us to make the trip over Thanksgiving. The kids had vacation from school, Harvey had vacation from work, and we would get to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We weren't considering going back to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving, because we will be going there for Christmas. If we had stayed in DC, my parents might have come to spend Thanksgiving with us, but it turned out that my brother was closing on a house that week, and they needed to stay to help him with the move anyway. So it was the perfect time for our NYC jaunt.

Snapped this while waiting for
Harvey to check into the hotel

We had thought about taking the train, but driving was cheaper for a family of six. We left our house around 3 p.m. on Wednesday, and (unsurprisingly) traffic was horrible, and we made a stop for dinner, so we didn't arrive at our hotel in Manhattan until around 10.

Harvey had booked the room on Priceline, so we didn't know exactly what type of room it would be. When we opened the door and saw the one king bed, we were a little concerned. We called the front desk, but changing to a larger room would require a larger price, so we stayed put and made it work. No, we did not all sleep on the bed. Judah slept with us and the kids slept on pallets on the floor. It was tight, but families bigger than ours all over the world sleep together in rooms much smaller than that one I'm sure, and they're fine, and so were we for three nights.

Off to the parade, armed with cocoa

Our plan was to leave for the parade around 7 the next morning. By the time we got up and around and had breakfast, it was closer to 8. We walked about twenty minutes to our spot at the parade. There were already lots of people waiting, so we weren't right in the front, but Harvey wasn't worried; the balloons fly high enough that we would still be able to see them. The weather that morning was below freezing, so as bundled up as we were, the wait for the parade to begin seemed long. We had heard it was supposed to start at 9, but I think it was after 9:30 when the parade finally reached us. 

Pre-parade view

The first float was a giant Thanksgiving turkey followed by a Macy's star. We were so excited things were finally getting started, and seeing those first few floats and marching bands was a thrill. By this time the kids had wormed their way through the crowd to get to a place where they could see really well. Harvey and I stood a couple rows back but could keep our eyes on them the whole time. Judah normally doesn't nap in the mornings, but she fell asleep in her stroller after the exhaustion of the trip and the early morning, so she slept for the first half hour or so of the parade.

Snoopy was not long after the turkey, and he was just as I'd imagined. Then came a mix of marching bands, balloons (including Hello Kitty, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Spiderman), floats, and celebrities (including Kristin Chenowith, Jimmy Fallon, and the Duck Dynasty crew). Harvey had told me that the marching band from Tulsa Union was in the parade this year, and when I heard "Oklahoma!" playing, I knew they were coming. I cheered loud for them.

Snoopy on his way

Snoopy up-close and personal

Happy to see her pal Hello Kitty

Hello Kitty, coming through! 

Tulsa pride!

Duck Dynasty

Hey Jessie!

Gracie was the only one of the older three kids to bare her face.

Look, Daddy, balloons!

Cirque du Soleil acrobats

Spidey approaching 

I was impressed.

Here comes Santa Clause--bringing up the rear

Happy Thanksgiving!

The parade lasted about two hours, and then people cleared out, and we headed to the restaurant where we had reservations for Thanksgiving dinner at 1:00. We arrived there a little early, and they didn't open until 1, so we had to wait in the lobby of the building for about 30 minutes. It wasn't so bad--at least we were indoors out of the cold. The place was normally a lounge, but they had a family Thanksgiving buffet just for the holiday. When we walked into the room on the 23rd floor, we saw a huge open space with high-back tufted leather couches and chairs, cocktail tables, and walls of windows with views of the surrounding high-rises, including the Empire State Building. So swank!

View from our restaurant window

We found the little table with our reservation card, and we got started with the buffet, a bounty of turkey, ham, fish, chicken, and all sorts of vegetables and salads and desserts. It was delicious, as it should have been for the price we paid! We ate until we were full and then we took a walk up the steps to the rooftop deck, where we braved the cold again to take a few photos.

Warm and cozy and stuffed

On the roof

One of the things on Harvey's to-do list was riding the Staten Island Ferry, which provides nice views of the skyline and the Statue of Liberty. On the way out of the restaurant, he asked the doorman how to get there. The doorman said we couldn't walk it; we would have to take a train. As we left the building, Harvey decided we could try to make the (4.5-mile) walk, so we pulled up a map on his phone and headed toward the water around 3:00.

It was a little strange taking a walk like that on Thanksgiving. So many people were out and about that it didn't really seem like a holiday. But I'm sure NYC is like that all day every day. We walked and walked and walked. Harvey's phone died. We walked some more. And some more. It started to get dark. Then my phone died. We were stuck by the World Trade Center in the dark with no phone and no map. We knew we were close to the ferry, but we didn't know how to get there, and it was getting late. So we finally gave up and began looking for a train station so we could go back to the hotel.

The new WTC

Are we almost to the boat, Daddy?

Once we got on the train, we realized that's what we should have done all along. We rode it the next two days and it was great. So we did learn from our failure; maybe it wasn't a complete waste of two hours on our feet. Over those two days we rode the ferry, walked on the Brooklyn Bridge, and saw Rockefeller Center, Times Square, Grand Central Station, the New York Public Library, and Central Park. We ate Chinese food and pizza and drank lots of hot chocolate compliments of our hotel. (If you ask the kids what their favorite part about the trip was, that's it: hot chocolate.)

Grand Central Station

Staten Island Ferry

Wall Street

Brooklyn Bridge

Rockefeller Center

Times Square

NY Public Library

Central Park

So there was lots and lots of walking, cramped quarters, and freezing weather. But there were also the lights and sights and sounds of New York, a dreamy place to be, especially for the holidays. It was interesting for me to compare New York City to Washington, DC, having lived in the latter for a year now. Overall New York seems more extreme to me--in some ways, grittier and dirtier and more run-down (especially the subway); in some ways, more glamorous and glitzy and grand. I love where I live, but there's no place like New York, and I'm thankful for our family's once-in-a-lifetime Thanksgiving visit!