Catching Up: The Sights

Our parents left yesterday evening, so hopefully, I'll be blogging with a bit more regularity again. I had a fantastic time while they where here, and we used them as an excuse to do some things around the city that we probably would have put off otherwise. Here is an update on some of the stuff we went out to do over the past week or so. (Remember you can click on any of the pictures to see them larger.)

First, before our parents actually arrived, we went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We showed up around 7:15-7:30am and I can say with confidence that it was not nearly early enough. We were far enough back that I couldn't see anybody unless they were on stilts or a float, but I don't think I missed too much. We did luck out that we were close enough that we were on the line where people started putting kids on their shoulders. If we had been behind that line, I don't think we would have seen anything but the balloons. It was cold, and crowded, and I had an absolutely wonderful time! Unfortunately, our camera batteries started acting up so we had to conserve. I only have pictures of balloons for you.
























































Just for the record, Ronald McDonald was completely creepy and Buzz Lightyear was my favorite. For more Macy's Parade fun, you should check out this Time article.

Friday is when Mom and Dad showed up, so Saturday is when we had our huge Thanksgiving feast. On Sunday we all headed downtown to see Wintuk.

I have always been a Cirque fan. I would say that this show is the most kid conscious one. It is hard to really say. Almost all of them are family friendly and great for kids, but this one seemed to pay particular attention to what is best for kids in a performance. There was a clear storyline, and English narration for it. There was a clear obstacle to overcome and each of the scenes or performances (I'm not sure what you would call it, but the different segments where each of the awesome skills are showcased) had a catalyst for the transitions. I thought it was a great show and a wonderful family event.

Since Mom is a quilter and I am a knitter, we headed to Purl in SoHo. They have one shop full of yarn and fiber supplies and another half a block down full of fabric and sewing supplies. They were both cute shops overflowing with color and nice people, but they were tiny and selection was a little low. Neither of us added to our stash, but Mom did grab me the new KnitScene.

We spent all day Tuesday in the city starting with Australia and dinner at the RUB. Then, as it started to get dark, we headed to 5th Ave. to check out the Christmas store windows.
The Bergdorf windows were a little odd. They were very pretty in mainly white and silver, but all of the men, had animal heads.






















We walked all the way down to Rockefeller Center to see the tree and the ice rink.











Does it look a little lack luster to you? You would be right, and it is because the tree was lit the day after we were there. I confess I didn't do the research and planning that I should have and I pouted about it for a little bit. The Cartier building helped to cheer me up and another building near it had a flashing snowflake light show that brought a smile back to my face.











Saks was on the way back up the other side of 5th Ave. Their store window was a fantastic story about a snowflake named Mike who dared to be different. They are selling the book of the story and part of the proceeds go to St. Jude's. We had a lot of fun there because Hubby goes by Mike. Mom found a sign that said "Mike made snowflake history. (His mother was so proud!)" The whole store was full of fantastic family photo ops that I messed up because I couldn't work out the lighting so we have a bunch of pictures of brightly light display windows and a dark shadowy figure that resembles my husband. Finally I gave the camera back to Hubby so we would have at least a couple successful pictures.

















Before we left downtown, we stopped at FAO Schwarz. I picked up some Christmas gifts for the triplets (since I don't have any kids of my own to shop for), finally got to take a look at the Muppet Whatnot Shop, and met up with some old friends.









By the time it was all over, we had spent almost 12 hours in Manhattan, and we were ready to drop. We spent the next couple days recouping and eating. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get you caught up on all of the fantastic knitting that happend while Mom was here enabling me.