Massive balloons, marching bands invade NYC

The Smurf was my favorite balloon!

 (But Kermit the Frog and the Pillsbury Dough Boy

were close runner-ups: See pics below)

For the last 24 years of my life, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade was just a television program. With all the hype, fame and publicity surrounding it (afterall, it's the largest parade in the country), I never considered that I'd actually go to New York City and watch the damn thing.

But thanks to our convenient location to New York, Kyle and I decided the day before Thanksgiving to venture to the city and witness the traditional spectacle. (Yay for last minute decision making!)

The Macy's parade has been around since 1924, but it was originally done with zoo animals instead of balloons. In 1927, Felix the Cat was the first Macy's balloon to debut at the parade.

I found an interesting TIME article about the history of the parade from last Thanksgiving - click here to read.

We woke up at 4 a.m. and drove into the Newark Penn Station, where we parked the car and took the NJ Transit rail into New York Penn Station. We met up with some family friends of mine who live outside the city. We set up camp in Times Square in front of the Marriott hotel and right across the street from Forever 21.

We stood around for a good two to three hours before the parade started - but man, you HAVE to get there early to get a decent spot because it fills up FAST. Also the police were blocking off roads left and right.

The balloons we saw were: Shrek, Spiderman, The Smurf (my favorite! see picture), Spongebob Squarepants, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Hello Kitty, some Japanese Anime characters, the yellow guy from Pokemon, Dumbo the Elephant, Snoopy, Kermit the Frog, Ronald McDonald, Mickey Mouse, Buzz Lightyear, Uncle Sam, Kung-Fu Panda, and other generic things like ice cream cones, colorful balls and pumpkins.

I thought it was funny that most of the balloon crews resembled prison inmates, with their bright orange jumpsuits and toboggans.

The marching bands were pretty cool too, (coming from a high school and college band nerd). We saw Lassiter High School's band from Marietta, GA - I remember our band used to go to the same band competitions with Lassiter, and they always took Best in Show.

NYPD Marching Band = awesome

The New York Police Department marching band was by far the best band. While much smaller than the high school bands, their sound was not only louder, but fuller. One of the trumpet players was playing some crazy-high improv on "When the Saints go Marching In." These guys played with soul, and you could tell they were pros. Man, I miss marching band!

Supposedly there were a lot of celebrities in the parade, but I didn't recognize most of the names. The ones I did recognize though were Kanye West, Joan Rivers, Jessica Simpson and Jimmy Fallon. Oh, and Rudy Giuliani was there, not in the parade, but right across the street from us watching it. Not that I'm crazy about any of those celebrities - I don't think I'm crazy about celebreties period. I think they are all entirely overrated. But I must say, I would probably get super excited if I saw Paul McCartney.

So all in all, the Macy's parade was an awesome experience. I'm so glad we went! Though my feet, knees and back were sore from standing for so long, it was totally worth it.

Nothing like a Monday afternoon hike to clear your mind....



One of many lookout points at Pyramid Mountain park

 So... I've had a lot on my mind lately. Seems like I always have things on my mind - but this morning, my mind was just starting to get a little too overloaded. (And overwhelmed). Luckily, I had the day off work today (thank you compressed flex-time schedule!) so Kyle and I went for a three hour hike at Pyramid Mountain park in Morris County, N.J.

We had been to this park a couple of times in the summer/early fall, but it looked completely different today with all the bare trees and dead leaves everywhere. The weather was unusually warm considering it's late November - it was in the sixties and sunny! Perfect hiking weather.


Whale Head Rock

A few high points along our route were several large boulders, (one was named "Whale Head" boulder because of the obvious resemblance to a whale's head. After reading this on our map, I couldn't help but play The Whale Song by Modest Mouse in my head. We also came to an overlook along the top of one of the ridges (after a pretty steep and rocky climb on the red trail.) After eating our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and apples at the top of the ridge, we finished the hike by taking the orange trail along the river. Along the way, we saw a couple swans fishing for food.

Of course our dog, Bruno, was going crazy when he saw the sun reflecting off the water. He has an odd obsession with reflections and beams of light. It was an awesome view though walking by the water. Enough to put my mind at ease and just enjoy life for what it is.





Climbing the Stairway to Heaven

View from the top of Wawayanda Mountain

I couldn't help but play the somber sounds of Jimmy Page's guitar in my head as Kyle and I ventured up Wawayanda Mountain on the "Stairway to Heaven" trail on this beautiful November afternoon.

Located near Hewitt, N.J, in Sussex County, just near the New Jersey/New York border, this trail is actually part of the Appalachian Trail. Kyle had scouted out this trail online a couple months back, and we've always been wanting to go. So today, we thought, why not finally climb those damn stairs?

I didn't even count the number of boulder "stairs" on the trail, but let's just say it was quite the work-out. My legs are probably going to be sore tomorrow.

We wore our packs not out of necessity, but for the added weight for an extra workout. After hiking about a mile and a half up the mountain, we took in the awesome view from the top and took tons of photos. It was freakin' awesome (as is clearly evident in the above photograph, lol). There is another trail that splits off the AT to bring hikers on a return loop back down the mountain, but we decided to take the AT back down to the trail head. If we would have got out there earlier in the day, we would have done the full loop, but the sun was already sinking quickly into the horizon even at 3 p.m.

 Coming down the mountain was even trickier than ascending. Kyle joked that the way down was the "Stairway to Hell." It sure felt like hell on my knees at times, as I hoisted myself down from multiple boulders while balancing the 25 pounds on my back. (Yeah, I didn't put much in my pack but whatever, 25 pounds is better than nothing, right?).

When we had finally descended the mountain, we looked back at the steep ridge ahead of us with nothing but satisfaction.



Love is all you need






South Park Jersey Shore

Well, I finally watched the much-anticipated South Park episode about Jersey Shore. This has to be one of the top five greatest episodes of South Park. (the Facebook one and the Guitar Hero one are other big favorites of mine).

I haven't yet ventured to the Shore yet since we've been living in Jersey. Kyle and I spent our Jersey summer days going on hikes and apartment hunting. By the time we decided to maybe visit the Shore, the weather had cooled off considerably (it was after Labor Day, too) so we just put it off. After watching this episode, I think we'll put it off even more! Snookie, you stay away from me!

A few small things...

Just thought I'd point out a few of the seemingingly little, unimportant differences between life in New Jersey versus Georgia. Of course, so many things are different up here - from the terrain, weather & climate, accents, culture,people,  food, etc. - but here's a few little things you wouldn't normally think of at first comparison (at least I didn't).

1) You don't pump your own gas
At first I thought this was strange to sit in my car while a gas station attendant did all the work, but considering the chilly weather we've been having lately, it's kind of nice not having to get out of the car. Also, it seems to make the whole stopping-to-get-gas process go much faster - you're in, you're out, and on your way. Also, apparantly you're not expected to tip them because they get paid by the hour - though I like to give at least buck to them if they are so kind as to wash my windshield for me. (which a couple of them have! aha! how's that for Southern hospitality in New Jersey!)

2) Tags on the back AND front
I never even considered the fact that our car didn't have a license plate holder on the front bumper because we never needed one in Georgia. When you get your tag for your car, you just stick 'er on the back bumper and your done with it. But not in Jersey. Maybe it's because the drivers are so bad up here that the cops really want to make sure they catch you when you're driving like an idiot - so needless to say, everyone displays the tacky, bright-yellow Jersey license plate on both sides of the car. (And it's more in tag fees at the DMW, too)

3) You can buy beer on Sundays!
Goodbye, Bible-belt! In Jersey, it doesn't matter what day of the week it is, you can buy beer, vodka, whiskey, wine - whatever alcoholic beverage tickles your fancy! This applies to both at the package store or in restaurants! However, I have noticed that you can't buy beer inside the actual grocery store like you could in Georgia. Instead, the liquor stores are "attached" to the grocery stores but really it's a seperate store with a separate cash register.

4) No sales tax!
Well, you still pay sales tax on certain things, but you aren't charged tax for groceries, household paper products, medicine and clothing. Also, you don't pay sales tax on gasoline. I've heard that New Jersey actually has some of the cheapest gas in the United States - some research from various websites validates this point.

5) Giants and Yankees fans are everywhere
It would honestly shock me if I didn't see at least five people dressed in Giants attire when I go out in public, even if it's not game day. And, every store has at least one end-cap full of Giants merch in just about any item possible. I even saw Giants Snuggies at the Wal-mart up here. Being a Dallas Cowboys and Atlanta Falcons fan, it's odd to be surrounded by Giants fever up here. They are actually my least favorite team in the NFL. The Yankees are extremely popular here, too. I constantly see Yankees bumper stickers, yard flags, t-shirts, you name it. And God forbid you try to say something bad about either of these two teams. You'd probably get jumped in a heartbeat.

Stumbling upon Revolutionary History...and beer.

Yesterday afternoon, Kyle and I sought out the hour-or-so drive to Lambertville, N.J., to check out the River Horse Brewery that we've wanted to try ever since we heard of it a few months ago. But little did we know on our quest for alcoholic bliss that we'd stumble upon a historical place where the bad-ass George Washington led his troops across the Delaware River on Christmas Eve night of 1776.

 

Washington's Crossing at the Delaware River

 It's called Washington Crossing State Park - and not only is the scenery there absolutely beautiful, but the history and stories that took place there are pretty awesome. We saw replica Durham Boats like what Washington used to move his troops across the river. We saw the marker which noted the place along the shore where his army crossed. We saw refurbished cannons and restored historical buildings.

Even walking into the visitor's center to get a map, the man and woman there were dressed in Revolutionary-era clothing (though it was somewhat creepy because they were remodeling the real visitor's center so they had set up shop in a dank-looking double-wide trailer).

The bridge we had to cross was built in 1905 - and boy, was this sucker narrow! Had it been just a few inches thinner, we'd for sure be scraping the side mirrors on the railing.

But no worries - we still got our beer for the day. After moseying around the park for a while, we headed over to River Horse and got samples of four of their brews and got a 30-minute tour of the brewery. The beers there were so much better than mass commercial brews like Bud Light and Coors. They were rich and flavorful (and strong!) Turns out the key is that River Horse, like most smaller breweries, allows the yeast to ferment for much, much longer than the mass-commercial brewers, who will simply let it fermet until it reaches a desired alcohol content and then filter out the rest of the ingredients so they can ship it out quicker.

But River Horse "is patient with the yeast. We can wait as long as it takes" quoth the tour guide. And man, you can surely taste the difference. But the problem is they are already operating at full capacity and still can't meet their market need for River Horse brews. We tried looking for River Horse in our nearby package store but our search was to no avail. So if any of you (who even care to read this stupid blog) happen to see River Horse beer on the shelves, I highly recommend you purchase it! The Lager is amazing, also the "Tripel Horse."

Mega-nerd for Megamind

The fact that I often bring peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch at work may be one subtle hint that yes, I am still a kid at heart - but the fact that I dragged my husband to the movie theatre on opening night of Megamind in 3D just might take the cake in childlike nerdiness.

I was hooked on this movie from the first preview I saw, while we were sitting in the theatre a few months ago watching "The Last Exorcist." (yeah, what a shift from kiddy animation to horror). I remember telling Kyle "oooh, I want to go see Megamind!"

So as we filed into the theatre, it became quickly apparant that we were the only adult couple there without a herd of squealing children trailing us. But whatever, I didn't feel awkward - I was looking forward to seeing this movie just as much as those snot-nosed munchkins were.

Funny thing is, Kyle and I laughed at the movie more than the sea of children in the theatre. And the parents in the crowd also laughed with us. I loved the Megamind character - his facial expressions and mannerisms cracked me up. Will Ferrell did an excellent job with Megamind's voice. Also, the voice of Megamind's sidekick, Minion, was none other than  David Cross - (aka Tobias from "Arrested Development" = awesome). And the soundtrack was cool - with music from Guns and Roses and AC DC.

I will also note that both Kyle and I were wearing our regular glasses under the 3D glasses - I couldn't help but laugh everytime I looked over at Kyle - I'm sure I looked just as goofy. Double dorky...eight eyes!

Oh no. Ice on the windshield.

For the past two mornings, Kyle and I have had ice on the windshield of the good 'ol Saturn Ion. Did you hear me, Georgia people - ICE! It's only November freakin' third and we're already having ice and insane frost in the mornings. No wonder I don't want to get out of bed in the mornings - because it's like 35 degrees outside and it's chilly in our apartment and I want to stay under the warm covers. What the hell am I going to do come December and January?

On another note - on the way home from work today, Kyle and I saw a freakin' huge bear in someone's yard eating out of the trashcan. We turned around and drove by their house two times to get a better look at this sucker. It was HUGE! There was an elderly couple in a pick up truck that was parked on the side of the driveway - the man was standing outside the truck aiming a digital camera at the bear - probably only like 15 feet away from it. WTF!!!!! (but I probably would have done the same thing if I had a camera)

Oh how I would FREAK THE F*** out if I was walking up my driveway after work and saw a monstrous bear sitting there looking at me.