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.