And lots of marching bands:

The guy in the corner had the worst picture timing I have ever seen. Every time I tried to take a picture he would move his head in my way. Plus his hat was tall.

And celebrities:



Alan Cumming and Ziggy Marley were some of the only ones I knew, but they also had the coolest floats. Evil M&Ms and a pirate ship! And Ziggy Marley looks so much like his dad.

After the parade was over, I found food and called my family. Usually I'm home and its Peter who calls and gets passed around, so it was kinda strange to get handed to everyone, but at least them seemed eager to talk to me. we never really know what to say to Pete, unfortunately. I ended up spending most of the time talking to Jan about DW. Figures.

After that, I headed to Canal street, which teaches you the irony of trying to not spend money when everything is cheap. I was going to get a hat. Thats it. One hat. I got two hats, a pair of gloves, and three t-shirts and then masterfully controlled myself from getting more stuff. I also haggled! Go me. Canal Street is funny, because all of these people are out selling obviously illegal things. They are out on the street with big suitcases of knockoffs and pirated DVDs (7 different people tried to sell me New Moon) and I'm guessing that if a cop comes by, they zip up the suitcase and the cop isn't allowed to look in. But no cops come by. Everyone knows its going on and overlooks it.

Canal Street is relatively (if you like walking) close to the Brooklyn Bridge. In 2004, when I went on the junior/senior trip. We crossed the Brooklyn Bridge. It wasn't a high point of my life. It was freezing. Literally. There was a big sign that told us the temperature: 32 degrees. It was also sleeting, and my umbrella spent most of the crossing inside out from the strong winds rushing down the river. I decided then that cold weather was evil and so was Dr. Francis.

This crossing was so much better. The sun was out!!! We hadn't had sun for the whole week and then right after the parade it emerged and I crossed the bridge under clear skies and it was warm enough that I wished I didn't have a coat. Which was also disappointing, because it was too warm to wear my lovely hat :(



After the bridge it was about 3 pm, which meant I had about an hour before the sun set (no. really.) I started heading back, then saw a map that said I was near ground zero. I'd never seen the area before so I headed over. There isn't much to see, because they have a covered fence up around the entire area. This is understandable, since its under construction, but so many people were milling about trying to look in, that it would have been nice to have some place to do that. Instead, everyone did what I did and stuck camera's through holes in the fence to look at the pics later:

After that, I caught the subway back to GCS, and realized I had seven minutes to catch a train. Bought myself a pastry, forgot a drink, which was annoying and climbed on a very full train with the hopes of falling asleep. Instead I sat next to these two women who were sisters-in-law and their daughter/niece. It was the first extended and enjoyable human contact I'd had all day, and it was nice to talk about random things and be around normal people.

The Macy's Day Parade celebrates Americana so much that it was strange for me to cheer and shout along with the rest of the crowd at certain points. Many of the baloons were lost on me, or I only knew them because of their pop culture status, not because I'd seen Care Bears, or pokemon, or the smurfs. Same with many of the celebrities. And I still don't get the attraction of marching bands. It was a strange day, rather vicarious, for all that I was part of it. Next year, I intend to be home, with my family, having tofurky and roasted potatoes and pie.