Bucket List: Thanksgiving in NYC

Bucket list item check- We spent Thanksgiving in NYC this year... at the parade!
I've always wanted to travel to NYC for the Thanksgiving Day parade but with such a big, close knit family, I was never willing to give up the day with everyone. This year was a bit crazy with my brother just moving to California a couple month ago, he wasn't coming home, and my other brother stayed in OH with work, so he didn't come home, and then my mom asked about going to OH with my sisters instead.  As much as I would have loved to go, Dave's work schedule didn't allow it so we saw it as the perfect opportunity to go to NYC!

We booked a room at the Watson hotel through Booking.com and started counting down!The beautiful thing about Booking.com was that since the Watson offered free cancellations, I could keep grabbing a new price as it went down as it got closer to the day. We had originally planned on staying Thanksgiving night but after looking at logistics, it made more sense to go Wednesday night into Thursday instead.  So Wednesday morning, we packed up and started the 3.5 hour drive.

We stopped in CT to see Dave's aunt and swim/sauna at the YMCA. It was a very relaxing morning and honestly, I wish our local YMCA had a sauna and steam room because I'd live there, so maybe it's good that they don't?

We spent the afternoon and evening in NYC, eating at American Girl, shopping and sight seeing in Rockafeller Plaza, and finished the night with the lights of Times Square.  The kids love New York so much and we ended the night eating M&Ms in our hotel room, making our game plan for the next morning.

We honestly didn't want to wait outside too long, it was only about 12* on Thanksgiving this year in NYC so we opted to catch the parade closer to Central Park, where we wouldn't need to get there as early for a good seat, and the parade would finish earlier than if we were closer to the tv viewing area. We left our hotel around 7:30 and stopped at Fluffys.

Fluffy's is this little cafe on the corner of 9th and 58th and worth the stop. Breakfast, with drinks was $42 for the 4 of us and we had so much food off 3 meals that were all full.  The meals took only a few minutes to cook and was so delicious.  The manager was unreal, coming over and talking to the kids, even complimenting them on their manners and behavior.  Before the end of the meal, he brought them each a black and white cookie that was literally the size of Ty's face! The kids were so happy and we loved every minute of our meal!

We ended up getting a spot right in Columbus Circle around 8:30 and waited for the parade to kick off at 9. David left a few minutes later to pick up hot cocoa re-enforcements from Starbucks and the kids and I froze a bit in the close to single digit temps. I'll admit the kids didn't last the whole time.  They were cold so we made our way into the shops at Columbus Center and had a great view of the parade, while being warm! If I'm being honest, I didn't expect them to make the whole thing and we saw a bunch of floats before calling it quits.  Since the hotel was only 2 blocks away, it was a quick walk back around 10:15.  We were even able to catch the parade on tv in our room while we packed up to check out!

We were so lucky that David's grandmother lives along the way back to our house and she had a delicious Thanksgiving meal waiting for us when we made our way back up to CT.

While it wasn't the traditional Thanksgiving that I'm always used to it was so wonderful to check something off of my bucket list!

xo, Heather