Adventures in NYC

And now, I take my blog for a brief stint away from Nashville, to Big Apple! This past weekend I met my family in New York City for a 4-day weekend of parades, food, shows, food, and being total tourists. I was actually really looking forward to getting into the festive spirit with lights, trees, shopping and scarves! Hard to feel festive in Nashville wearing a t-shirt...

We all flew in on Wednesday night and the parade was on Thursday morning. I did some research and found out that although the parade starts at 9, people line up as early as 6am. Now I had the best intentions of leaving the hotel by 7, but, well, that didn't happen. We got to 72nd street at about 8:30, which didn't leave for ideal viewing situations, but hey! I'm tall. And pushy. In case you didn't guess, a LOT of people show up to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.

Mickey giving his salute. Balloons are easy to
see for everyone!

Santa made it!!

My conclusion on the parade is that you definitely get the best view watching it on TV, but it was still fun to attend in person. Once. We were also very lucky that it was a beautiful day!

The end of the parade heading down Central Park West

Wollman skating rink in Central Park

Thursday night we had tickets for the Radio City Christmas show, which I have wanted to see ever since I was a kid. It was AWESOME - particularly the tin soldier number!

Our family at Radio City

Also very cool was that we know 3 girls from Red Deer who are actually all Rockettes! So thanks to them, we got a backstage tour and got to meet the live animals who are part of the show. Fun fact - they walk the camels and sheep outside Radio City every night about 2am. Wonder if this has caused any cab drivers to get their eyes checked?

Hangin with a famous camel

After the show we tried to visit the Empire State Building, where a certain member of my family may or may not have been refused entry due to sense of humor. And possibly a couple grey geese. Mostly the manager guy just had a stick up his rear end because he was working on Thanksgiving. So this is the only picture we have...but hey, it's a story! Not everyone can say they've been kicked out of the Empire State building...

This security guy may have sold us out.

The rest of the weekend was spent shopping, wandering, eating, touristing, and attending 2 more Broadway shows (Newsies for the whole family, Book of Mormon for me on Sunday after they left). I am sorry (am I?) to say I didn't partake in the Black Friday madness - we avoided Macy's but even Bloomingdales on the opposite end of the city was shoulder-to-shoulder crowds. I'm not sure any sale is worth that...or maybe I'm just getting lazy in my old age! My big purchase/souvenir of the weekend was this kate spade scarf - a map of all of Manhattan! I'll never get lost again!

Thanks Mom!

Overall, fun, action-packed weekend, but I definitely felt like I needed a vacation once I got back to Nashville! NYC was beautiful - the 5th Avenue displays are beautiful and creative, and the Radio City show was everything I hoped, and of course it was great to spend time with my family, but I'll tell you I'll be ready for Maui at Christmas!

Til next time, NYC!