Large Plates: Balloons in the Park

Did you know that you can go to Central Park on Thanksgiving Eve and watch them inflate the balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade? David learned about it from someone at work. After the pizza (insert sigh of delight here) we headed uptown on the subway to 79th & Columbia. As we came out of the subway station we ran into police barricades directing us down, around, under, and through. As we walked passed a row of TV vans, I knew this was more than a quick little walk in the park.

Welcome to the production. The balloons are inflated along 79th and 77th streets. By the time we arrived, they were done inflating, but sat weighted down, prepared for the parade. The crowds weren't too bad on 79th street, and we stopped to take pictures of most of the balloons. I love the Shrek, Buzz Lightyear, and Kermit the Frog balloons. Despite my post a few days ago, this was one pre-Thanksgiving moment where I was okay with hearing Christmas music. It was contextually relevant. And I wasn't being sold anything. Wait. Doesn't Macy's sponsor the parade? Okay, maybe I was being sold something, but it wasn't overt, so I can overlook it. My principles aren't that strong.

The crowds were amazing. Tons of people everywhere the eye could see. The excitement and energy was palpable. I feed off the energy and walked alone, taking pictures, drinking it in. Small children looked up at these towering balloons with awe in their eyes. Adults held out iPhones to take self portraits with their friends. I even saw two ridiculous old women (okay they were early 50s) in their fur coats smoking and pushing their way through the crowds, angling for shots with each of the balloons.

I took a ton of pictures, which are posted to the right, but a quick finish to the story. As we headed over to 77th Street to see the second half of the balloons we ran into a wall of people. After slowly moving along for ten minutes we decided to head home. The crowds were immense. It was like 4th of July on the Mall in D.C. On our way home we decided hot chocolate was in order. That was the true inauguration of the holiday spirit: hot chocolate on a cold city night. Bring Thanksgiving on!

Four more necessary pictures. I was fascinated with how they weighted the balloons down. It seemed there were sandbags every foot, if not more frequently.