Hopping on the blog between our back-to-back trips to update you all on our trip to NYC and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I'll start by saying that the experience was wonderful! It was truly all that I had hoped it would be. Going into it I was nervous about how it would go with the kids....early morning, insane crowds, cold weather, etc, etc, but everything went very smooth! Before I get into all of the details, I'll back up to Tuesday.
My parents arrived on Tuesday. The traffic around the airport wasn't exactly smooth, but George eventually got to them and they all headed back up to our apartment in Collegeville. By the time they arrived, the babysitter was here and the four of us headed to dinner. A nice dinner without children is always a treat for us! :)
On Wednesday, we headed up to NYC around 11AM. It's pretty expensive to bring cars into NYC so we decided to only bring one car. Since our car only fits five people and there were six of us, I caught a ride with my friend, Amanda, who also lives in Philadelphia and happened to be going to NYC on Wednesday. On the way home, my Dad took the Bolt Bus. The logistics of that worked out really well.
We stayed at the Millennium Hilton in lower Manhattan. Our room had an incredible view of World Trade Center One, the memorial, and the Hudson. You'll see a picture in my video posted below. In the evening, we decided to make the trek up to the Upper West Side to see the parade balloon inflation. This was probably the least smooth part of the trip. The process to get to the balloons was long.....plus our train broke down on the way, which didn't help. We heard that security at the inflation was much tighter than years past. They were checking bags and funneling people through a very specific route with one entry point. Once we made it to the balloons, it wasn't too crazy and we were able to walk alongside of the balloons at our own pace. They line-up the balloons 77th ave and 81st ave, which just about the start of the parade route. The balloons were so much bigger than I expected! After the balloons, we headed back to the hotel to get the kids to bed. That night my parents watched the kids and George and I went out for dinner! Two kid free dinners in a row! :)
On Thursday, my parents woke up super early and arrived at the parade route at 6AM. They got an an amazing spot at the beginning of the parade route on Central Park West between 74th and 75th ave. They are parents/in-laws/grandparents of the year for waiting out in the cold for 3 hours to save a spot!! Meanwhile, we were back in the warm hotel room with the kids. Haha! Thanks, Mom and Dad! We left the hotel just before 8AM and actually had no issues getting to the general area. However, by the time we arrived, the crowd had filled in and getting to them was like pushing through a brick wall. I still can't believe we actually got to them. But we did! And 5 minutes later the parade started!! :) The parade lasted exactly 90 minutes. The kids were totally into it and saw pretty much every float/balloon/band. Toward the end, they were right up next to the fencing and even had a front row view of Santa! We all really, really enjoyed the entire parade. A few times I thought to myself, "I can't believe we're actually here!" George and I have talked about going to it for awhile now, but I never thought we actually would. I know Luke won't remember it, but I think Madeline will. I'll just have to show Luke this blog post! ;) Watching it on TV will always be extra special after seeing it in person. Since we were at the start of the parade, we were able to get out of the parade area and back to lower Manhattan before it got too crazy on the subway.
Later that afternoon, we headed back out to Rockefeller Center and Central Park. The tree lighting isn't until this week, but everything else was festive! The shop windows are incredible. Way more over-the-top than I expected. The kids loved running around Central Park. In the evening, we made our way to Wo Hop in China town. It's a recommendation from the Mosers - very good Chinese food! That night, we were all beat. It took me approximately 3 seconds to fall asleep.
On Friday, we packed up and headed to Battery Park to catch the ferry to Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Madeline has seriously asked us every single trip to NYC to take a boat to Statue of Liberty. She finally got her wish. It's crazy to think that about 90 years ago, my Great Grandmother was a little girl on Ellis Island immigrating to the United States with her family. Aunt Doris/Grandma- you could probably give me the exact year. We didn't get to do the park ranger tour (not ideal with the kids) so we just explored ourselves.
We wrapped up our time in New York with some ramen. We always try to get ramen when we're in NYC because we don't have a ramen place near us and there seems to be a ton of ramen restaurants there. My mom, Madeline, and I also swung into the craziness at Macy's. To say it was busy would be an understatement. It was absolutely insane. I like to be in the action though so I got a kick out of it.
My parents left on Saturday afternoon. That morning, my dad took Madeline geocaching and my mom made a trip to Wegman's, but other than that we had a lazy morning. Normally it would be hard to say goodbye, but not this time! We'll see them in just a few days in Colorado!
Here's a compilation of pictures/videos from my Instagram story and a bunch of pictures....
