As I reminded him, the Clinton's could have stook in this very spot. Not likely, given that they're all important and everything and I'm sure they take a car in and out of the city, but if they were to take this train, this is their station.
We arrived at Grand Central Station just before 6:00 a.m. (no time to take pictures, but we'll get some tomorrow), and made our way to Central Park West and 62nd Street. I chose this location based on it's close proximity to Tavern on the Green, where we had Thanksgiving Dinner reservations, but it turned out to be a great place for viewing the parade, too. We arrived just as folks started filling in the intersection and were just a couple of people back from the street (probably had three rows of people in front of me by parade time, but that's because we pushed all the kids in our section to the front for the best views--a couple firefighters in front of us even ended up with kids on their shoulders who they just met this morning!). Any other parade, I wouldn't have been happy to be three rows back, but check out this picture to see where we could have been--
Seeing the crowd fill in behind us made the two hour wait well worth it, and folks took turns sitting down so everyone could rest their feet. Finally, the parade started (and got to us at about 9:15 a.m.), and I was definitely as excited (maybe more-so) as the kids around us! J commented once that he'd never seen me smile so widely. Here are a few pictures (ask me if you'd like to see more--I took about 70 pictures of the parade) of my favorite classic balloons and floats. Speaking of the balloons--they are SO much bigger in person than on TV; definitely a surprise.
The parade ended around 11:00 and we had a short wait before the restaurant opened, so we sat on a bench in Central Park and people-watched. I was surprised at how peaceful it was! We also had our picture take on the rocks in the park. If you watched Sex & the City, you might remember that Charlotte had to have her engagement pictures taken there, so of course I needed a picture there, too!
Our Thanksgiving Dinner was delicious, and these pictures of the second course don't do it justice! For our first course, I had a pumpkin chestnut bisque and J had a crab cake. As you can see, I went traditional for the second course and J went traditionally J--filet and mashed potatoes! For dessert, he had pumpkin cheesecake and I had a pecan chocolate tart. At that point, I was so stuffed, I couldn't finish dessert, but every bite I ate was worth it!
We rounded out our Thanksgiving Day with a trip to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, featuring the Rockettes. Again, WOW! Such an impressive location and show! I'm so glad we opted to go while we're in town (the traveling version of the show will be in Lexington in December and we considered just seeing it there.). We walked through Rockefeller Plaza (I was so relieved to see they finally took down the scaffolding), stopped for me to peak in the windows at Studio 1-A (the Today Show studio), and visited NYC's favorite drug store (Duane Reade) for some blister remedies and snack food to serve as our supper this evening.
We're so grateful for an early night, as tomorrow we have a ful day of sightseeing ahead of us. Check back tomorrow night for more pictures!
Title: New York at Christmas, one of the many songs sung at the Radio City Christmas Spectacular
Title: New York at Christmas, one of the many songs sung at the Radio City Christmas Spectacular
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