When you hear of people going to NYC for Thanksgiving, naturally you think that they want to see the Macy’s Day Parade Live.  Not me.  I wanted to see the preparation the day before the famous 30 year old festivity in the Big Apple. 

I finally got to do it last November and I share now, in case you are thinking of a trip to NYC and decide to do what I did. Head to the parade preparations the day before Turkey Day.   I highly recommend it.  

So, what’s the deal? 

You know those huge balloons and lively floats. Well they have to get blown up and put together somehow and somewhere. They are huge.  It all happens on the upper west side of Manhattan on the day before the parade. 

On Parade morning the parade begins at 77nd street and Central Park West. They head down Central Park West to Sixth Avenue.  They go down Sixth until reaching Macy’s Flagship store at Herald Square on West 34th Street. The much celebrated marching bands from all over the country meet up in Central Park and join them in the correct order. 

So, let’s start at the beginning.  I lined up with hundreds of people on the sidewalk of Columbus Avenue.  The people were all friendly while waiting and I heard several stories of “This has always been on my bucket list.”  It was on mine.  

At one point I mentioned that I was from Grand Rapids, Michigan to someone near me  in the patiently waiting and somewhat jovial crowd. She  put thumbs up and said something like “way to go.”  Never heard why he was so enthusiastic about Grand Rapids.  

Eventually the line started moving and we fed into a huge area on 72nd street where there were police lines and security gates. The masses of people were friendly.  There was no pushing or shoving. All prepared for a good time. There were lots of children as you can imagine.  

 After that, the area of the preparations were within fencing and lots of police. That was reassuring because I thought this could be an area ripe for terrorists. Sad to feel that way. 

We snaked up and down Central Park West, where a man stoped to tell me he liked my flower printed puffer coat and said I looked like a hippie. That’s not how I”m often described these days, but I welcomed the compliment. Do you think it was one? 

Then we turned onto the side streets where the huge balloons were in various stages of being blown up. They started as flat puddles of plastic on the pavement to 80% ready to go.  

They do the last 20% at the point of heading off on the parade with folks monitoring the amount of inflation along the way to make sure they don’t wobble in the wind. 

I loved that at many of the  balloon staff  were available to answer questions.  People who know me know I always have questions. I learned  how many people it takes to manage the balloons (90 in one case), and how it works to feed them into the parade line up. 

We wound around several blocks and passed  the Natural History Museum with a new section by Chicago Architect Jeanne Gang.  I’d like to see that. Next trip. 

I loved seeing the floats being assembled.  We were behind a pretty high fence, so it was hard to photograph but here are a few images.

I captured some participants who weren’t as excited as I was to see it all.

The crowd dissipated into the Park and all around. It was a lovely day.   

And as always I look for shadows. Sometimes they tell the story.