Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

I LOVE PARADES !! 

Probably as much as Oprah LOVES bread!  I've always wanted to see the 3 major parades, live and in person, especially the Rose Bowl Parade, in nice sunny warm California.  And can you imagine Disney's Christmas parade, how magical would that be AT Disney ON Christmas day!  My least favorite to see would be the  Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, I was just not as excited about sitting in cold freezing air to see larger than life balloons.  Sitting in my PJ's on Thanksgiving morning with a cup of coffee in my hand was just fine, until this year !

   Years ago we lived in Cali and one Christmas morning the boys received tickets to attend Disney's Christmas Day parade on Christmas day!  We packed up and got to rope drop and were the first people in line.  To our dismay we found out that day that the Christmas day parade is pre-filmed.  Not only did we not get to see it live and in person we were at the park and would not even get to see it on TV.  But it all turned out ok.  We enjoyed our Disney Day and had a wonderful Christmas. 

    Missing Disney's Christmas day parade made us want to see others.  So while we were in Cali we planned to see  the Rose Bowl Parade, which is filmed live.  An awesome experience !  The whole city smelled of fresh flowers just like when you walk into a florist shop.   My son and I were able to help decorate floats that year and that just added to the awesome adventure.  If you ever get a chance to go be sure to purchase the after parade ticket to get up close and personal with the floats, SO worth the money!!

  So finally one parade checked off our to see bucket list!!  

 

 

 

  Now to this year.  We found out that we had some Amtrak miles that would expire this year if we did not use them.  So after doing some research we figured out we had enough points for a one way trip with train and one way trip with Delta.  Where would one go with train and plane miles,
 NEW YORK CITY!! of course!!!!!

 

 And what better time to go than to see the Parade!!  So we booked the trip.  So I won't boar you with all the details but I will tell you some info to think about if you ever make the trip and great things we enjoyed during this time.  I'll also load up lots of pictures for you to enjoy!


#1 - We stayed at THE NEW YORKER by Wyndham on 34th street .  Great hotel!  Retro Flair and VERY clean!  Tick Tock is the dinner in the bottom of the hotel, our kids loved eating there.  Dad and I enjoyed kid free time in the morning enjoying a cup of coffee people watching out big picture windows.

 


#2 - Rockettes at Radio Music Hall was a fantastic!  Even my two teens had a good time.  We had the cheapest way up in the nose bleed section seats and it was still enjoyable from way up there.  When we  came in everyone got a Santa hat so it made the whole place festive!

 


#3- After the show we walked around outside and enjoyed watching the street vendors.  Some were artist and others were sellers of knock offs.

#3- Right now FOA Swartz has a store set up at Rockefeller Center where you can play the full size piano.   There's a line so be prepared!

#4- On Thanksgiving day make reservations for after the parade.  We chose Max Brenner.  OMG!!!  That was leg slapping good!!  Its a chocolate bar but they have food also.  The chocolate fondue was a big hit for our family.   The mac-n-cheese burger was not a big hit with one of my teens but the wings were!

 

 

#5- China town is a good place to shop after the parade to let the crowd clear out up by the hotel.  The New Yorker is just a few blocks from Macy's and it was crazy when we got back to our hotel at 5pm, I can only image it right after the parade.

#6- Parade Day!!  Bring a million had warmers.  You know those little heat up things!  I had those things in my shoes, in my hands, in my pants pockets and I was still cold.  I also had on 3 layers of pants and 5 layers of tops!  Hats and gloves and boots!  It was cold!!  Dress warmly!!

#7- The night before the parade attend the blow up party.  They will have certain streets lined with all the balloons and you can watch them from start to finish.  It's a one way in and a one way out, so don't rush through or you will have to walk all the way back around to start again.  New York knows how to move people where they want you to go!!!  Go with the flow!

 

#8-GMA- If you want to be in the audience  of GMA sign up with less than 3 people.  We signed up and because we were a "group" (4 people)  we were put on some waiting list and did not get in.  I signed up the first day our available time was posted.  I should have had dad sign up him and one kid and I sign up with a kid.  Not sure if that would work but what I did sure did not work.   We did go stand at GMA studio at  7:30 am outside and Robin and Ginger came out to greet up, so that was pretty cool.

 

 


#9- If you want to do a show, sign up for several that way when you miss out on one you have a chance for the second one.  I wish now I had signed up for Kelly and Ryan, since my GMA fell through.

#10 -  SANTA LAND IS A MUST  !!  Right now you can  only see SANTA with reservations so plan accordingly!!   EVERYONE knows that the real Santa is in Macy's in NYC!  It's free and fun!!  Be sure to ride the wooden escalators up to the 8th floor, where Santa is.   Those wooden moving steps are just amazing!

 







#11- Staten Island ferry is free.  The NYC side boarding building has the best pizza we found anywhere around.  Riding the ferry gives you a good look at Lady Liberty.  We wanted to do the Crown tour but it was sold out at the time of our travel dates., BOOK this early if you want to do this on your trip.  We have  already done the pedestal tour once.  It was Good,  but we wanted to see something different this time.

#12- Biking Central park was fun! Beware bikes are not allowed on the little paths in central park just the big ones.

#13 - Train travel can be fun, but we took the train home from NYC and we were exhausted and our train was on a 2 hour delay which made it very long and tiring!!   I wish I would have known that you could hop off at Union Station in Washington, DC.  I saw several people do this and it would have been nice to stretch those legs.    Dinning cars are always a fun way to break up such a long trip.  So we did dine, but there was not much of a selection of teen food.  The server let our teens eat off the kids menu which consisted of a hot dog!   Our server was telling us that they will be doing away with the dinning cars next year and encouraged us to tell our senators to save the dinning car!   I've taking the train several times now and one of the best memories I have is eating in the dinning car, breakfast is my favorite.  So i'll be trying to save the dinning cars so you and your family can one day enjoy a fun adventure in your travels.

 
 

Hope these tips help you to plan the perfect trip to NYC to see the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade.  If  you have any questions shoot me an email.  I'll try to help out the best I can.  

Merry Christmas 2018!!

Adventure in being a Movie Star- heehee

Adventure in Movie Making 

Adventure can be right in front of us, sometimes and we may not even recognize it.    I believe we have to train ourselves to spot everyday activities  that could turn into a grand adventure.   For me that came in a simple Facebook post. 

I spotted this post one day as I was just scrolling through.  I thought to myself, "I've ran a marathon so why not be famous and be in a marathon movie"  Now of course  I knew I 'd never be really famous for being in the background of a movie, but I did recognize  the opportunity to have a little fun and experience an all new adventure. 

So I started with making myself a new running outfit.  If I was going to be famous I wanted to say I had on an original RUNwayGear outfit.  lol  And then I waited for the detailed email.  If you have not participated in a movie shoot you may be surprised how it all happens and you may be a little overwhelmed.  I'm an easy going person so I just rolled with it.  So the week before the scheduled shoot dates you have to watch your email like a hawk  waiting for the specific details, like time and location.    I received 2 emails the day before the shoot.  One was early morning saying to be at the set location very early the next morning.  But right before bedtime I received an email with a time change.  

In these emails I also learned the name of  the  movie that was being shot.  Sounds like a heart touching story, be sure to check it out next year when it comes out.    

The first day on set was a lot to take in and learn.  First off they held us in the big tent where we were handed our paper work to fill out.  The paper work was a lot of tax forms.   After we were all done we just waited around as the film crew was getting ready.  

Most of the morning we sat around in this tent.  I was sitting by  myself until I decided to get up and walk around to make some friends. The tent was full of people half were runners the other half were actors.  So I found some real nice ladies to chat with, come to find out they live in the city near mine and we were all apart of the group, Moms Run This Town.    Then we strummed  up a conversion with a background actor who does this kinda thing all the time.  He gave us some pointers if we ever wanted to do this more often.  At that point I was amazed that he did this as a full time job ,  I was only there to say I was a marathon runner and I wanted to be in a marathon movie.   I met several others, some did this kinda thing because they were retired and others were  like me, we wanted to be marathon movie famous.  

 

We finally got called to the set.  We boarded a bus where we headed to the town center of Stock bridge.   The movie set was being held right in front of their City Hall.  Again we waited around until we were told our positions.   It would be boring for me to tell you how the rest of the day went because there was a lot of standing around.  But whats really important is what scenes  I was shot in :-)  Now I've been told that in the movie industry don't be surprised if your scene does not make it and I"m prepared for that, but I'll share with you my "famous" moments just in case.  lol   

 So the best shot they got of me......  I was right in front of the camera....... was the shot that they were filming our feet running by the camera.  I have on pink shoes and pink socks so watch for me!    (I'm laughing at myself as I type this)  Seriously  though that was the only shot where I was directly in front of the camera.   There was a couple other shots where we were running by the main actor but I'm not counting on seeing myself in those.

It was a super fun and interesting day. I'm so glad that I did not let my fear of the unknown keep me from having such a cool adventure.  I made memories, learned about something new, met new friends and completed my dream of being famous!    

Stone Mountain Bring a Friend for Free day.

Adventure at Stone Mountain Park

I love Stone Mountain.  I love hiking up to the top, I love running the 5 mile path around the mountain and I love sitting out on the laser lawn picnicking.   There's so much adventure that can be had while visiting the park, from nature walks to history museums.   This past weekend we found adventure at the Pumpkin Festival that is being held during this fall time of year.   

 Since my 16 year old does not find the park as adventurous as I do we decided to bring along some guest.  Friends can add a different adventure to any outing.   When we share an experience with those we enjoy the adventure some how becomes a little different and a bit more interesting.   When we share things together we are enjoying life to it's fullest.  

  We are currently Mountain Members,  that allows us to bring a friend for free on special days.  We invited my niece, Kaylee and nephew, Connor.   Life is always fun when they are around.  

During this fall time of year Stone Mountain is all decked out with Pumpkins. 

 There's so much pumpkin fall fun going on, like character meet and greet, fall parade through Crossroads, and the Mad Hatter carnival games.  

Our adventure would not be complete at the mountain without some geocaching.  After a picnic on the top of the mountain our crew solved the clues that led us to the cache on top of the mountain.  Check out geocaching online for all the rules and locations.  Our family has enjoyed caching for many years.    

  

On this adventure we rode the cable car up to the top, which can be a little scary so a prize of Dippin Dots was a sweet prize!

Check out Stone Mountains website for a list of all the fun stuff they have going on right now.  The pumpkin glow party sounds super fun.  We ended our day with a little putt putt golf, which is included in our Mountain Membership.  The course is located behind the train station and is a great shady activity when it's hot out.

 How do you enjoy Stone Mountain?  

 There is so much to do I would love to hear your favorite activity at the Mountain.
Feel Free to post a comment to share with us all.

Remember Adventure is out there; and if you find the same adventure you've done many times before, invite a guest, bring joy to their day and a spin to the same old adventure.