Thanksgiving in New York...

Charles and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving week in New York!

We walked throughout the city and to Times Square several nights... We even caught some Monday Night Football in the ESPN Zone...

We also conquered the NYC Subway...and took it (to my feet's delight!) to travel to many places throughout the city...We saw the Chrysler Building and Grand Central Station...

and had a wonderful time exploring inside Grand Central...We checked out several museums.

We first went to the MoMA...
and saw everything from Warhols...

to Van Goghs...

(Starry Night was my absolute favorite!)

to Picassos...
to Pollacks...to items which I really consider to be "modern art" like Charles' favorite, zen tv...MoMA was having a Tim Burton exhibit which was really neat to view...

We saw so many of his sketches, sculptures and even Edward Scissorshands' costume!

We also explored the sculpture garden at MoMA and had fun taking pictures!

We visited the Met... There was just too much to see it all, but we did see an exhibit on Vermeer...many Van Goghs...Monets...including one of his Waterlilies...Degas paintings and sculptures...We both really enjoyed the Egyptian Wing were we saw everything from hieroglyphs and ruins to a Sphinx...and a sarcophagus...We also toured the medieval arts galleries where we saw many different armors...and the Angel Christmas tree and creche. This was absolutely beautiful! Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures of it or any other special exhibit.

We also quickly toured the Guggenheim and saw many interesting pieces as well as a Kandinsky exhibit...

We also toured the museum at Fraunces Tavern and were able to see an original Magna Carta which was on loan for the exhibition...

I have always wanted to see the store windows all decorated for Christmas and was so excited to finally see them!

We saw the windows at Tiffany & Co. ...They were small but so intricately done - just beautiful!

We saw the windows at Lord and Taylor's which quite possible were my favorites...They had such a classic feel to them and incorporated everything I think of when I think of Christmas and especially Christmas in New York - from ice skating to a chestnut cart to stores decorated for Christmas to the Nutcracker -They were just beautiful!

We saw the windows at Saks...which followed a little snowflake...through all of the possibilities of where she could end up...We saw the windows at Macy's which were spectacular!There were two sets of windows on the different sides of the store.

One set was bright and whimsical and followed children's letters to Santa...all the way to Santa himself...

The other set of windows were my favorite! They were classic and traditional and followed Miracle on 34th Street... I just loved seeing all the store windows and all the stores in their Christmas decorations!
Everything was lit up for Christmas and just beautiful...

I have also always wanted to see the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall, and this wish too is now fulfilled!We saw the Rockettes perform their Christmas show before, but the Rockettes were even more spectacular at Radio City!

We had a wonderful time at the show and followed Christmas in New York tradition by eating roasted chestnuts after the show...

We also enjoyed other New York "must eats" like a hot dog from a street vendor...black and white cookies, and a cupcake from Magnolia Bakery (delish!)... a Woody Allen from Carnegie Deli (and Charles got to sit close to the picture of Dan Marino once again!)...New York cheesecake...and, of course, a frozzzen hot chocolate from Serendipity!

We only had time for one other Broadway show, so we chose Hair and had a great time!

We walked through Central Park several days. This view from Belvedere Castle is perhaps my favorite picture from Central Park...We had to take a couple of breaks during all that walking!

We went ice skating at Rockefeller Center!

Charles did a great job for his first time ice skating...

and I had a marvelous time!

We finally managed to skate in sync for a while...While skating, we were also able to hear parts of the Bon Jovi concert! After finishing skating, we walked over to see if we could take in any more of the concert. Unfortunately, Bon Jovi was gone, and we were only able to see the stage...

We saw the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center complete with scaffolding while the workers were placing all the lights on it!and later in the trip saw it in all its beauty...(I would just love to have seen it all lit up!)

The tree made such a beautiful backdrop to the Rockefeller Gardens...

Charles and I took the subway to Brooklyn. We had a fun time walking around the park at the water's edge taking in the sights of the New York skyline and the bridges. Here we are with the Manhattan Bridge to the side...and here is Charles with the Brooklyn Bridge...We walked around the DUMBO area and sampled some delicious chocolates at Jacqure Torres...and enjoyed lunch at Grimaldi's...That New York style coal oven pizza was delicious!

We walked back to Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge...Even though it was hazy that day, we still saw the beautiful skyline and had time for some fun while crossing the bridge!

The views from the bridge were spectacular, but the views of the bridge were just as spectacular. It is just amazing the architecture and construction that went into the bridge so many years ago...
We also rode the Staten Island Ferry to Staten Island... and saw the Manhattan skyline, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty...The ride was exciting and relaxing, and it was neat because birds flew with us on our return trip to Manhattan...

The evening before Thanksgiving, I had read that the balloons in the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade are inflated and you can go watch the inflation. Well, we decided to do this, and it was neat to see, but the crowds were almost too much to handle...on top of that it was misty and rainy, so we managed to make it down one segment of the balloons and decided to call it a day!

I was excited that the segment we went down included the Smurf balloon!!

Thanksgiving Day we awoke bright and early and made our way down Central Park West to 64th Street where we found a little spot on the sidewalk right up front at 6:00 a.m. We camped out in that spot until the parade began at 9:00 or a little after once it got to us. Thankfully, we had some very nice and interesting people on either side of us to talk to.

I was so excited to see the parade and Charles and I were up front to watch all the clowns, bands, floats, balloons and festivities!

It was amazing to see the balloons and just how big they are floating right overhead. Spiderman was one of the first balloons...

I also liked the Seseame Street float, the Care Bear float and the Peanuts float!

Linus even waved at us...The Smurfs balloon was my favorite! I was so excited to see it at the far end of the street...As the Smurfs rode by, I yelled to Papa Smurf, and he waved to me - Smurftastic!!After many fun and exciting floats, balloons, clowns and stars, we finally saw the elf balloons...followed by Santa! As Santa drove by, he waved and blew a kiss to us!

We had such a fun time at the parade! We were so excited, we didn't even realize that we were running on such little sleep and had stood on our feet (which were aching from all the previous days' walking) for hours...

After the parade, we joined the crowds and exited through Central Park. We decided to stop for a Thanksgiving lunch of...

hot dogs and a pretzel! Not quite chicken and dressing, sweet potatoes and all the fixings, but delicious none the less!

We had such a wonderful trip to New York!