The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

If I had a bucket list, this would be a bucket list item.

I've watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade since I was little. And although it has gotten cheesier in recent years filled with Disney's latest tween sensations I still eagerly turn on the television every Thanksgiving morning to watch. We are on the West Coast, so we get a rebroadcast at 9 am -- which we stop watching when football starts at 10 am ... Note to NBC most of us would happily wake up early for a live version of the parade (most folks are up anyway preparing the Turkey Day dinner).

This year we decided to visit family on the East Coast for Thanksgiving. When we learned that everyone was going to have Thanksgiving dinner in New Jersey ... it was a no brainer, we were going to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We drove to the ferry in Weehawken, NJ early Wednesday morning from Maryland.

The ferry is an amazing and easy way to arrive in New York. We took the free shuttle which let us off in front of Radio City Music Hall, just a few blocks from our hotel, the New York Hilton. We were able to get a very good rate at the very last minute, breakfast included.

Spiderman being blown-up

We checked our bags, and then headed to Bagel and Bean for a bagel lunch, and to ride the carousel in Central Park ... all to put us in the vicinity of Columbus Square where they blow up the balloons (starting at 3 pm). Once we arrived at the balloons staging area it was a bit confusing... the crowd was routed around to the entrance on 79th (you basically circled around the Natural History Museum). It was so much fun, and got the boys excited for the parade. We saw Buzz Lightyear, Shrek, Spiderman and Kermit being blown-up. Macy's handed out balloons to the kids as well.

Angelo's Pizza

Afterward we headed back to our hotel, then off to dinner at a nearby pizza place (Angelo's, very tasty and family friendly) ... then to bed.

Caleb up front

The next morning we were up at 6:30 am (our hotel was just a block from the parade route). We had breakfast at 7:15 am and then headed to the street around 7:45 am. There was already a sizable crowd. The folks up front had been there since 4:30 am. We figured that the boys being 4 and 5 would be able to sneak up front when the parade started (we were right).

Jonathan and I were about 3 to 4 rows back from the front. From our vantage point we could see everything. Our favorite balloons were Shrek, Kermit the frog and Spiderman. The boy's favorites were Shrek and Spiderman (they don't have the same affinity to Kermit as we do ... even though we have tried). Did I mention that the balloons were the best part?

The parade was perfectly timed, and at no point were the boys bored or were the balloons held up due to television breaks (this was a big deal with the San Jose Holiday Parade).

We left shortly after Spiderman (Horten the elephant was the last balloon that we saw), and headed to the hotel to check out. We then caught a cab to the New York Waterway to pickup the ferry, and were in New Jersey shortly after noon.

Overall an awesome experience ... something the boys will remember, and I'm certain we will do it again!

A Judgemental Relapse - Thanksgiving Travel with Kids

It was 2:30 am and there we were at the end of shuttle line 400 people deep. We started the day at 7 am ET, rushing to BWI to catch our flight home ... that flight had mechanical problems and we were transferred to a 4 pm flight out of Dulles. That flight was delayed and we missed our connection in Chicago. We left Chicago at 10 pm...

Finally we landed at 2:00 am with dozens of other flights all waiting for the fog to clear enough to be able to land at SFO. Every 20 minutes a new van would show up and take 4 people. At that rate we would be late for work on Monday. We finally rented a car, and got home around 6 am. I had to be at work at 8 am -- it was a very long Monday.

On that fateful day more than a decade ago we swore we would never, ever travel during Thanksgiving week. Especially someday when we had kids.

A moment of insanity? This year we are going to the East coast for Thanksgiving. We've stayed away long enough. We are taking the boys and have some big plans. Visits with friends and family in DC. A trip to New Jersey by way of New York for Thanksgiving with family. We are taking the boys to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (we'll see how this goes), and the whole trip will culminate at the Redskins game on Sunday.

We think we're clever planning to travel home Monday morning ... but we'll see how it goes. Time heals all wounds, and hopefully we won't be reliving our last Thanksgiving travel adventure.

The Holiday Frenzy Seems Early this Year

Somehow the usual Happy Fall skip hit a frenetic Holiday grind which I don't see slowing down until February.  We didn't make it to a pumpkin patch this year, instead relying on Safeway pumpkins and two pumpkins that came home from Kindergarten. We did do our annual pumpkin pancake breakfast in Woodside, but opted not to venture further into Half Moon Bay (where we would have hit the pumpkin patch circuit) because it was the weekend of the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin festival. We went last year, and it just isn't worth the headache of the crowds.

By the time Halloween rolled around last Sunday we couldn't believe it had crept up so quickly. We carved the pumpkins and bought candy Halloween day. The boys still had oodles of fun.

We did make other choices that consumed our time...Xander plays soccer every Saturday through Thanksgiving week. Caleb is still in pre-hockey at Sharks Ice - so Saturday before 12 pm is booked. ...Jonathan and I got to go to the World Series and cheer on our San Francisco Giants, we spent a Sunday evening in San Francisco to celebrate our anniversary, and we went to the Gorillaz concert in Oakland... We also planned our East Coast Thanksgiving trip to DC and New York -- which will include the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.

It turns out that the school age years are harder than I thought it would be. The weekly Kindergarten homework eats up time. It is good time, one-on-one with Xander, but it still takes away from other fun activities. Xander is starting to read, color in the lines, write and do basic math. Then there is the obligatory school activities, like back to school night, PTA meetings and the Harvest Festival, which we really should and do work into our already overbooked schedule.

Then there were things beyond our control like both boys getting sick (three weeks apart) and late nights with a feverish boy, but thus is life. 

So now, I'm looking at the next two weeks before our trip to the East Coast and wondering how we're going to get it all done, but still keep it fun.  We have our three-month eye appointment for Xander,  his parent-teacher conference, and school is closed this Thursday and Friday (Thursday our preschool daycare has agreed to take Xander, and Friday he will be in school aftercare - they are going to the Children's Discovery Museum).  Jonathan and I also both have big projects for work due ... so we'll have to balance, balance, balance. And I haven't started Holiday shopping yet. Yikes!