NYC Part II

Through their 5 years of experience, my cousin (kage) and her husband (J) have figured out the best way to see the Macy’s Day Parade. I shouldn’t give away all their secrets, but I’ll give you a few tips:

Go early.
Go early and dress for the weather.

The plan was to meet J at 6:30am near the intended position on the west side of Central Park, so that we could stake out front-row seats for the parade, which would not begin until 9:00am. Unfortunately, it was cold, rainy and windy at 6:30 … and at 7:30 … and at 8:30 … etc. Instead of a front-row seat on the exposed sidewalk, we opted for a second-row seat under the shelter of some scaffolding. This turned out to be a good move, because we were spared the worst of the rain, but we still got pretty wet traveling to our destination.

From our position, the view was somewhat limited, but we still got a great look at SuperGrover, SpongeBob and the rest of the crew. We also saw such celebrities as Emmitt Smith, Julie Andrews and the Harlem Globetrotters (not all on the same float, however). It was really good, but after several hours, the wet and cold took its toll. We finally had to bail out.

When we showed up at Kage’s house for Thanksgiving Dinner at 1pm, we could still feel the chill in our bones. That didn’t last long, as we tucked into a legitimate FEAST. Kage really knocked herself out preparing it all – literally. As we lingered around the table, nibbling on rolls and wishing we had the capacity to eat one more helping, we noticed Kage had disappeared. She went to check on the baby and crashed. Poor girl had worked so hard. Rightly so. She had cooked up every conceivable Thanksgiving dish.

We spent that night in a hotel near Times Square. We were pleasantly surprised. Not only was it nice, it was a good deal. We were particularly impressed/intrigued that they used a funky yellow lamp to backlight the headboard. The only unnerving thing was the mysterious knocking.

In the night, we heard a knocking at the door. When I figured out what was going on and got to the door, there was no one there. We really weren’t expecting anyone, so I was confused when it happened again a little while later. Only half-dressed, I stumbled to open the door to find what looked like a repairman, standing in the hall with a bucket of ice. He asked, “did you order the ice?” We didn’t order any ice. What circumstances would require a express delivery of ice in the middle of the night?

The Mansfield Hotel: They get plus one point for the yellow light and minus one point for the ice debaucle.