The Willoughby Chronicles: Thursday in New York...

Charles and I got an early start! I was anxious to get a front row "seat" for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! We walked to Central Park West and finally found an open spot at 64th Street...

From 6:00 a.m. until the parade began, we chatted with our parade neighbors. Thankfully, we were next to some really nice and interesting people. We also watched the crowds grow...

and grow...

The parade finally began, and skating clowns led the way...

They got into a confetti fight with the people across the street from us - too funny!

We saw marching bands...

and interesting entries...

and bicycle riding grandmas...

balloon handlers...

and floats and balloons of all sorts...

from pirate ships...

to Sailor Mickey...

and Sailor Mickey's handlers...

to dancing Native Americans on this cute tortoise float...

to Snoopy following...

Jimmy Fallon and the Roots...

to the rest of the Peanuts gang...

Linus gave us the thumbs up!

to a train...

and paddle boat...

We saw Macy's stars and the Earth...

and astronauts...

and Buzz Lightyear...

We saw a baseball (but no Yankees or Cubs!)...

We really liked this float filled with all the Big Apple is known for...

We enjoyed the NYPD Marching Band...

We saw Mr. Peanut in the Planter's Mobile...

and the Care Bear float with Carley Simon...

It is definitely true that all the world loves a parade...

We saw actors from Days of Our Lives...

and a float complete with ice skating rink and ice skater...

We saw all sorts of marching bands' color guards...

and Macy's Great American Marching Band...

followed down the parade route by Spiderman...

I was so excited when I finally saw the Smurf balloon headed our way...

He was huge...

and his handlers did a great job...

I enjoyed the Smurf float too!

As you can see, Papa Smurf is waving to me, and I am waving right back!

I also gave a high five to one the soldier on stilts...

We saw pilgrims...

and Tom Turkey...

Food Network stars...

and the Pillsbury Dough Boy...

We saw fun entries like this caterpillar...

and the Sesame Street float...

with all of our favorite characters - Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, The Count, Grover...

and Oscar the Grouch!

We saw Build-a Bear bears and bunnies...

Presidents and the Statue of Liberty...

and M&M's performing Broadway shows like Wicked and Phantom...

We saw Shrek overhead...

and Cindi Lauper

a jump rope team...

characters from Yo Gabba Gabba...

and finally, the elves...

followed by the cheerleaders...

and Santa Clause!

Santa was very friendly waving and blowing kisses to us!

Charles and I had such a fun time at the parade!!

After the parade, we jumped over the baracade rails and joined the crowds for a bit...

We then decided to follow the crowds into Central Park...

We thought this would be the easiest way to get away from the parade...

Apparently lots of people had the same thoughts!

We did enjoy the beauty of the park during our walk though...

We paused to see children having fun at the petting zoo...

and saw many of the cute little animals...

After walking through the park, we found a street vendor and decided to have a Thanksgiving lunch of hot dogs and a pretzel...

We found a spot on the wall and enjoyed!

Everything was decorated for Christmas, and I enjoyed looking at all of the decorations! I really liked these evergreen candy canes...

and thought that this pharmacy's store windows were cute..

We also saw this giant Christmas lights sculpture...

After walking down many streets, we encountered the clean up crew - vehicular and manual street sweepers - cleaning up after the parade and getting all (or as much as possible) of the confetti out of the streets...

We stopped by Tiffany & Co.

Although I managed not to go in this trip - so no temptations for me!

But I did enjoy looking at their windows...

They were all so intracately decorated, but the one below was my favorite...

Check out the Tiffany blue boxes in the sleigh!

We also checked out the windows at Saks...

and enjoyed following a little snow flake around the world...

We then jumped on the subway and headed to the Staten Island Ferry terminal...

we waited for just a bit until the next ferry arrived...

and sailed across to Staten Island taking in views of Ellis Island...

the Statue of Liberty...

and the Manhattan skyline along the way...

We docked...

and stepped outside to take a look at Staten Island...

and enjoyed the views of the lighthouse...

and of Manhattan from the pier...

We walked back into the terminal and saw some pretty fish in the aquarium while waiting for the next ferry...

We were one of the firsts to board the ferry, so we got a great spot on the back and were really able to enjoy all of the scenery on the ride back. During our return, a flock of birds decided to travel with us...