Macy's Thanksgiving Parade 2009 photos

Macy's Thanksgiving Parade!

Finally!

I got up at 5am and checked out, stored my luggage and rushed the 12 blocks to my chosen site just up the road from Times Square. Now, let me explain for you armchair travellers out there. When 12 blocks equals an inch or two on a map it translate to a lenghty walk in real time... Good Lord! I walked and walked and walked, and with each step, it seemed I involuntary picked up speed, building up momentum if you will. All the streets were blocked off so catching a cab was out of the question. Eventually I stumbled across 7th Ave and though it was not my chosen spot, my legs threatened mutiny, claim that spot, or die basically. I might have rounded the corner huffing and puffing and a bit wild eyed, because the sea of humanity (it is still 3 hours before the parade for crying out!) opened up before me. Wondered if Moses felt the same way at the Red Sea? Anyway I found a spot just one person from the barriers. Tried to control my breathing and calm my shaking legs a bit and prepared for the long wait. People actually camped out over night and laid out blankets and chairs to stake their 'place'. Well, lets just say that a certain chair got slowly inched to the left with gentle nudges... inch by inch. Could see the look of surprise an hour later on the guy's face when he realised his 'property' got a lot smaller... ANYWAY...

By 8am there must have been a good 12 rows of people behind me already and by 9am it was jam packed. I had a brilliant spot and was worth the wait. The guy in front of me kept sitting in his chair so I had unobstructed views. (I will add my own photo's and video later)It was pretty awesome. Float after float and band after band, it just kept on coming. It was well worth all the hassle.

Now I am in New Jersey across the Hudson and will trek in every day to the city and return at night.

The adventure continues...

Chicago to New York

I was a bit sad leaving Chicago, I do like that city. But, I did, and I did so on a sold out Amtrak train. have you ever been on a 21 hour trainride where EVERY seat has been sold out, the whole trip. When one butt got off, it was immediatedly replaced with another.

Immigration Issues...

So at 6am the train pulled into Erie, PA and I woke up from some heavy footsteps coming down the isle and saw these two guys in greenish uniform that kinda looked familiar... and the next moment I heard "are you an American citizen" from the back... They worked their way up the isle and I reached for my passport, when they asked the guy behind me. They had to wake him and preceeded to ask him again. All groggily he passed his greencard and the immigration guy phoned someone for confirmation... The other immigration guy reached me and I handed my passport even before he could ask... he looked at it and handed it straight back at me and looked me in the eye and thanked me for being proactive! his friend was still on the phone and all I could hear was 'uh huh, uh huh' he then asked the guy how long has he been in the country. The guy said 12 years, the immigration guy then said, we'll your card is fake and you are here illegally. They gave him one minute to gather his stuff before they hauled him off the train. Gosh, I know he was illegal etc, but imagine, 12 years of looking over your shoulder, he told his seat mate that he has two little kids and he was returning to them for Thanksgiving etc. He would most likely get deported back to India. 12 years is a lifetime about to get yanked from underneath him and his whole family.

Anyway... New York is crazy as ever! More so with millions of people here for the parade! Okay, continueing with my evaluation of hotel amenities... First hotel I stayed at was the Chelsea Star Hotel in Chelsea. A budget hotel as you can tell by the unused ammenities. Uhm, stained and opened bottles. Great location hough as the hotel is only one block from Penn Station/Madison Square. Another plus is that there is some great and cheap ethnic restaurants close by. Great Thai food was consumed!

Next hotel is the W-New York. The opposite of last nights experience. Super hip and cool. Located in Midtown west on Lexington it is a really nice hotel, and i got it for free with miles. Anyway, they give you BLISS spa products and it is nice... I am on the 15th floor and this is the best hotel i will get to stay in. Tommorrow night it is off to a Howard Johnsons accross the river for me, as befitting my missionary budget.

Thanks to my circle of benefactors in Texas for sending me off to see 'Wicked' at the Gershwin Theatre. Oh my, did i enjoy it! Wicked tells the story of Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West and her relationship with Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. Their friendship struggles through their opposing personalities and viewpoints, rivalry over the same love-interest, their reactions to the Wizard's corrupt government, and, ultimately, Elphaba's public fall from grace. The plot is set mostly before Dorothy's arrival from Kansas, and includes several references to well-known scenes and dialogue in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz as a backstory. IT WAS AWESOME! If you ever get the chance and you love the wizard of Oz, gu see Wicked! Go, RUN!

Okay off to bed and the Thanksgiving Parade tommorrow! Whohoooo!

Last days in Chicago...

The Noggeler Guuggenmusig Band from Lucerne playing Jingle Bells at the steps of the John Hancock Building in Chicago. Sunday 22 November 2009. Invented in the first half of the 20th century, carnival bands have a long tradition in Lucerne. Instruments played by amateurs who try to play famous tunes from pop to the latest hits alog to traditional swiss tunes, carnival band play almoust everything in a unique, not-always-right-sounding way, which makes the difference to a professional brass band.



I went to church to the Fourth Presbeterian Church on Mag Mile and what a stunning church and good sermon. The bits I paid attention to... you see... it is the same church where the wedding scene from 'My Best Friends Wedding' was shot. So, right throughout the service I replayed the movie in my mind. Or just when I got into the service, a flash back occured with me unwittingly wispering 'Of Course' making the old lady next to me twitch. I was tempted to pull a Brick wisper from 'In The Middle'on her "FROM THE DEVIL" just to see how well she would cope, but I resisted.

The Magnificent Mile Lights Festival in Chicago

Magnificent Mile Lights Festival in Brief:
The Magnificent Mile Lights Festival officially kicks off the Christmas season in Chicago, with numerous fun family activities and the highlight, the Mickey Mouse parade illuminating over one million lights along Michigan Avenue.

Imagine if it is your job to count the lights every year... do you cheat? Medium tree = 756 lights - check, whoa, large tree = 1786 lights - check... Best of all it happened half a block from my hotel... hehe, NO parking problems here!

So, there I stood waiting for the parade, watching the Chicago police baricade the street which ended right infront of me with about a foot shortage of baricade. Over walks two of Chicago's best. The biggest cop takes some yellow police line tape and strings it about 17 times between the two baricades. The smaller cop asked the bigger one if he was scared the smaller ones will break free, when the bigger cop looked me in the eye and said it was not the smaller ones he was afraid of! Jerk. Looking him in the eye and before I could stop myself, I said in my best Brick Heck (from The Middle) wisper 'Dude, Mickey Mouse...' I thought the smaller cop was going to pop a kidney laughing.

Beautiful Chicago.

Spending the day at Shedd Aquarium





and boy, did I feel like feeding these sharks with a few screaming kids... Oh Lawdy, the temptation was STRONG...



Chicago in shock!

Another lucky day for me. One day too you will ask where were you when Oprah announced her retirement. Yes folks, I was there, in Chicago, on the streets, as a city wept.

Fisticuffs! and then Chicago.

So somewhere in Illinois, enroute to Chicago, two of the older ladies a few rows back in my train car got in a scuffle after one of them got really annoyed by the other one’s incessant ringing cell phone and loud phone conversations. She then told the cell lady to “take her ass to the lounge car” as she was annoying. Did I mention they were old? The cell lady – still on a call – told her caller “the heifer next to me is giving me lip, how about if I just keep my ass here!” Oh boy. After a “You called me what" and a “You heard me, heifer” the 'heifer' stormed off to find herself a conductor. She has been gone a while now. As she stormed passed I noticed that she was wearing a ‘Steve Wilkos Show’ shirt. HA! If you don’t know, Steve Wilkos used to be a bouncer of the Jerry Springer Show and now has his own show. Now again to put it in perspective,,,, these are old ladies! HAHA, I don’t think we are in Texas anymore! So, now I am waiting for the chairs to start flying. Ah, I love America.

Finally! Chicago!
Okay, here I am ensconsed in my hotel, the venerable old Tremont Hotel. I am in love with this old hotel and it is like a sweet homecoming as I have stayed here before. The best is that they offer Judith Jackson amenities. The 5 star creme de la creme (and hard to come by) of spa products. Thank you Jesus for Hotwire! Another bonus is that there is a Starbucks right across the street! To keep with the theme of my trip, it turns out that there is a Christmas Parade Saturday night as they switch the Magnificent Mile's lights on. Whohoooooo!

St Louis, Missouri

Like a true train geek, I now too have a youtube video of an Amtrak train, in this case the arrival of my own train.

Waking up in St Louis!
Good morning from St Louis! Gateway to the west. Well, uhm, I forgot what public transport could be like on a bad day. Both in front and behind me are middle aged ladies who are snoring worse than a couple of sailors! Non-stop. All the way. Did I mention non-stop? In fact they are still at it, no matter how many times I accidentally kick the seat in front of me. Gosh. Endless... AAAAArgh, apart from that, all is well, oh and my shoe stopped squeeking! Is it a sign.... :-)

The train arrived here more than an hour early, so now we wait... it is quite beautiful watching a city wake up. You observe yet... you are not part of it.

Okay, after that deep moment I need a cup of very bad coffee!

Getting down with Bluegrass!

My cultural training continued this past weekend with a visit to the local Bluegrass Festival. Oh wow, I had no idea... IT WAS AWESOME!

Hahaha, I enjoyed the hooting and hollering way too much. The video is from one of the bands that played even though the video is from another festival, but it will give you an idea...



8 more days to my trip up north!

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