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!

New York, NY

On Wednesday we drove to New Jersey to visit Jonathan’s Aunt and Uncle and his cousins. Then on Thursday morning we headed into New York City.

We opted to drive. Jonathan and I had our hearts set on taking the train, but the parking situation at Princeton Junction is a bit of zoo, and it wasn’t advised. When Jonathan’s father did the math, the train roundtrip for four people was about the same as driving.

Of course there was no way that he could have included the ticket we got for getting stuck in the crosswalk when the light turned red. I guess the Big Apple needs to generate revenue somewhere.

After we checked into the hotel, we headed to Pronto Pizza for lunch. The pizza was amazing. Caleb doesn’t like pizza (did I mention he is two), and Xander ate his whole slice crust and all.

We then ventured to Central Park. Our plan was to spend the entire day in Central Park, but Jonathan and I had to quickly devise a Plan B since the weather called for scattered thunderstorms. The most specific weathercast predicted rain every other hour. Luck was on our side and we got two full, wonderful hours in the park before rain.

We had our rain gear with us, and we bought umbrellas before heading out on our adventure. Our hotel was located in midtown, four blocks from Central Park.

I could imagine a future trip to New York where we spend three solid days exploring Central Park. For this trip we only made it about a third of the way into the park. The boys rode the carousel, and we watched a baseball game between the cast and crew of Wicked, and West Side Story.

Xander usually freaks out on the carousel, but this time around I selected horses that don’t go up and down. He told me, “Mommy, I’m not scared this time.”

When it started raining we thought it would be a quick scattered shower, but we were woefully wrong. It lasted for more than two hours. We hid in a tunnel with a group of people, and when the tunnel began to flood, we finally made our way back to our hotel. Caleb and Xander enjoyed jumping in mud puddles, so even with raincoats, they were soaked.

We got cocoas and lattes at Starbucks, and waited out the storm in the comfort of our hotel. We then walked toward the Central Park zoo. We saw a crane at the duck pond, and Xander napped in the stroller.

In researching our trip, Jonathan found a company called American Childcare Inc., which provides babysitters to visitors of Chicago, New York and San Francisco.

Our babysitter Michelle arrived at 7 pm. She was 34 years old, the mother of two boys, and had worked as a nanny. She was great with the boys. This gave us a much needed date night. We met up with friends, and went to a lovely Italian restaurant.

When we got back the hotel, both boys were sound asleep.

The next morning we headed to Barney Greengrass for breakfast. It is one of Anthony Bordain’s favorite places, and a wonderful old school deli – know for their sturgeon. The boys and I had blintzes and Jonathan had a sturgeon omelet. We bought some bagels and black and white cookies for the road.

We then headed to the American Natural History Museum to see dinosaur bones. There is a whole lot more to the museum then bones, but considering our preschooler crowd, we opted to simplify the experience.

The boys loved the dinosaurs. We even let them pick one of their own from the gift shop. Xander and Caleb are now sleeping with them. It was then back to New Jersey and a family barbeque.

Although it was a whirlwind. A day and a half in New York gave us a nice break, and everyone had a wonderful time.

The Itinerary

The rule with itineraries when traveling with small children is one major activity a day. It is also a good idea when visiting family to have a general sense for what you want to do, with the flexibility to change the itinerary for anything that might come up, a sick kid, or torrential rain, or a parade…

You should also make an assessment of what your kids will tolerate. Both my boys are early risers, up at 6 am. They are best behaved before 3 pm. They will skip naps on weekends, and then crash hard. For example it was hard to get my 2 year old out of bed this morning. All of this you need to take into consideration.

So we know when visiting any site, it works best for us to get there when it opens. Since the boys nap in the afternoon, and car rides will put them to sleep, long car trips should be planned for afternoon.

You should also consider the time-change. Any time you have a time-change, jet lag lasts one day per hour… So my sweet little guys won’t be on a schedule until Day 3. Until that day we need to avoid large indoor crowds, like an aquarium, or museum, or we will set ourselves up for failure. At the same time, parks like the National Arboretum would be perfect.

All in all we will be in DC for six very full non-travel days. We plan to visit with three friends and their families, and see as many as four sites. So, you can see the one activity a day may be quite difficult to accomplish.

The target sites include a mix of indoor and outdoor, and if we can do most of them during the weekday that would be best.

US National Arboretum (Outdoor)

The National Zoo (Outdoor)

National Aquarium Baltimore (Indoor)

B&O Railroad Museum (Indoor)

Annapolis for a crab feast (Mixed Indoor)

We also wanted to go to the DC Trolley Museum (boy do our boys love trains), but since it is closed until late summer it came off the list.

We will continue to refine the itinerary (I’m geeky enough to add weather to the timeline – but that is a different blog post). The final Itinerary will be a thick document with everything from train schedules, to confirmation emails for hotels, babysitting services, directions to friends’ houses etc.

However, as I mentioned earlier, flexibility is key. So if something doesn’t work out, that is okay. The goal isn’t to see the most sites. The goal is to have fun.

Go East Young Men

At the end of the month we will be flying to DC and visiting friends and family. We plan to make a side trip to New York City and New Jersey. This will be our first East Coast trip with Caleb who is 2 and a half. We brought him home from Russia last summer, I'll write about that trip later. We're not sure how well he will travel. Our only experience with him was 20 hours flying from Moscow to Frankfurt to San Francisco when he was 22 months old. The trip out is a red eye, so hopefully he'll sleep.

Our oldest Xander is 4, and he is an old pro at traveling. He went with us on our trip to get Caleb, a 23 day adventure in Austria, Germany, Moscow and rural Russia.

My biggest concern is that Caleb isn't quite restaurant ready. We've been working on getting him to sit at the table (something he is not too fond of) and actually eating the meal in front of him (that still needs work).

On the trip we will take it easy on restaurants. We have to go to Rio Grande (as a California I can safely say the best fajitas ever) in Rockville, MD and perhaps a Crab feast in Annapolis. Both are fairly family friendly places, and we will go in the early evening to avoid crowds.

In New York City we will have a date night. We read about a baby sitting service (they specialize in coming to your hotel room) and I'll be sure to review it on the blog.

In terms of other activities, we plan to get outside as much as possible. Toddlers and preschoolers seem to be happiest when they get plenty of fresh air. We'll probably go to the Arboretum in Wheaton, MD, the DC Zoo and spend a day in Central Park. Since my husband is from DC, and we used to live in the area, we'll also have lot's of play dates for the kids as well.