Having a ball

24th November 2011  Re-examine all you have been told... Dismiss what insults your soul.  Walt Whitman.  Where to start, Yesterday morning began a little later we all managed to sleep till 7am so by the time we'd finished messing about and used the pc in the hotel business centre we were ready to eat so we went to a place on Times Square called Ellen's Diner where they sing while you eat - they don't serve very quickly though.  It took 45mins to bring us our breakfast, so we enjoyed the free entertainment.   Next we made our way to the World Trade Centre to see the 911 memorial park which because of construction is a ticket only thing at the moment.  We all got emotional walking round the pools reading the names especially when we read that some of the victims had been pregnant.   We spent a long time there contemplating before moving on and as today is Thanksgiving Day here it certainly did make you feel thankful for being alive.  When we were in the visitor centre I overheard a mother trying to explain the attack on the twin towers to her daughter - how do you do that!? In the evening we went to Madison Square Garden to see a basketball game, it took us twice as long to get there because we got on the wrong subway and went ten blocks too far, it probably would have been shorter walking from our hotel, but it made us giggle and we got to see the Flat Iron building which was New York's first skyscraper.   The ball game was an experience and it was great to see Madison Square Garden from inside. There were two semi final games but we were happy to just watch the one and decided to go spend the rest of the time in Macy's.  I felt very festive walking around the store, Miracle on 34th Street is one of my all time favourite films and one of the reasons I'm in NY this week.  'believe' is their festive theme and it felt so real and special.  We grabbed a pizza slice for tea and I had a chicken thing from one of the food stands.  We were shattered when we got back to the room just before midnight and we set the alarm for 6am! So today is Thanksgiving and we did manage to get up at 6am, we quickly wrapped up warm and headed out to find a spot to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, we pitched up on 57th St & 7th Ave and patiently waited for a good 3hrs. I'm so glad we left so early to get a good spot, we had a clear view of the parade and what a show it was!  The 85th Anniversary edition, the parade of wonder featured 15 giant character balloons, 44 novelty/ornament balloons, balloonicles and balloonheads including Sonic the Hedgehog, Kermit, Spongebob, Buzz Lightyear.  It also had 27 floats, 1,600 cheerleader, dancers and performing groups members, 800 clowns, 11 marching bands, celebrity performers including as Cee Lo Green, Neil Diamond and Mary J Blige and of course Santa Claus!  So many people there too, according to the news 1.5 million people were there to see it all! As you can imagine by the time it finished passing us around 11 we were ravenous and extremely thirsty so we walked back towards the hotel and passed a little place called Palace Restaurant which is easily the best service we have had so far, the waiter was so attentive, the service was fast and the food was delicious. It was also a real bargain too and the first decent cup of tea I've had to far, so I had 3 cups!   We are now back at the hotel, I'm blogging and the girls are snoozing, later we have Thanksgiving dinner booked at 'The View' which is New Yorks only revolving restaurant - ooo exciting must make sure we don't lose our table if we go to the bathroom! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone xx