America’s Thanksgiving Parade

Hello everyone, and Happy Cyber Monday!  Is anyone taking advantage of the Black Friday Monday sales online today? I am thinking about it…

I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend if you celebrate Thanksgiving here in the United States.  If not, I still hope your weekend was wonderful.  We gave thanks and stuffed ourselves silly, which is usually the summary of most Thanksgiving Day celebrations.

That all came, however, after something new this year!

A few weeks ago, Scott told me he would be part of one of the oldest and most celebrated parades in the country! America’s Thanksgiving Parade is on its 86th year and just so happens to be located close to us in downtown Detroit.

I have never been up to see the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade live in New York, but I have to think it is somewhat similar to what we saw.  The floats were impressive, there were a handful of giant parade balloons, and thousands of spectators.

Thanksgiving Morning

This Thanksgiving started off extra early! With a parade kickoff of 9:05, we had to leave the house at 6:30 a.m. to get down there, park, and get Scott to the right starting point.  Early starts call for ginormous cups of coffee in my book!

We also dug into the banana bread we made the night before.  It was a Classic Banana Bread recipe via Cooking Light, and it was delicious!

America’s Thanksgiving Parade

After driving around downtown Detroit, we finally decided to hop out and start walking to our seats while Scott drove up to the start line.

Right away, we came across the Turkey Trotters.  This year there was a record breaking 22,100 runners!

I really wanted to sign up for the Turkey Trot 10K, since I never got to run it in Orlando.  I had no idea it began right before the parade just a few blocks away and had I figured it out beforehand, I definitely would have hopped on board!

I guess I will have to wait for next year.

Instead, I spent the morning waiting for the parade to start with Scott’s father and step-mother.  We were very happy to have them here for our first Thanksgiving up north.

The parade kicked off a little later than projected, but had a loud and clear start with a variety of marching bands playing some of my favorite holiday tunes.

We could spot the giant parade balloons from the start line and each guessed what the upcoming character was from afar.  There was no doubt in my mind that this one was Miss Piggy!  Maybe it was the green Kermit the Frogs steering below that gave it away…

Not too long after it started, the float we came to see appeared.  It held representations of all Detroit sports teams, including Roary, the Detroit Lions Mascot, PAWS, the Detroit Tigers Mascot, and a special appearance by our favorite from the NBA.

HOOPER!

He was facing the other side while he passed us, but from what I could tell he was causing havoc climbing on things, which is nothing new.

One of my favorite components of the parade was a different type of mascot.  The Big Head Corps. fills the parade with a large collection of papier-mache heads each year.

Hello there, Mr. Burt Reynolds.

From presidential candidates and celebrities to animals, I could not get enough of these big heads.  They cracked me up!

One of the groups that really impressed me were the high wheel bicycles.  Did you know this was called penny-farthering?

Neither did I.

As the parade went on, I was grateful to have a hot tea in hand because it was chilly!  I know… I better get used to it.

Being a dancer, I appreciated the HUGE group of girls dancing with pom pons.  There were so many!  They held one blue pom and one red one, and it was pretty cool to watch that many move around and make formations.

There were a handful of local celebrities including Ashanti, Dave Hester (from Storage Wars), Ray Scott (Detroit Pistons great), and a handful of 2012 Olympic Champions.  Here is Allison Schmitt, an American swimmer and six time Olympic medalist.

And showing more American pride, was Uncle Sam himself.

As much as I could write about each float that went by, I will spare you the scrolling and am going to finish off with two highlights.

One seems very simple, at first glance.  If I told you this group was for a hot dog company and had kids rollerskating around to “Who Let the Dogs Out?” would that make you giggle?

I sure did.  And, check out that little mustard.  I could not stop laughing!

A crowd favorite was what seemed like hundreds of clowns throwing out beads.  I almost got trampled by people trying to catch a set!  Knock yourself out folks… I will be the girl sitting down to avoid what always seems to be a spilled beverage, person knocked down to the floor, or fight over simple swag.

It was a long, but fun morning and I really enjoyed getting to do something different that the usual Thanksgiving morning at home.  If Scott is a part of it again next year, I really want to sign up for the Turkey Trot and run before the parade starts.

Hopefully it won’t be too chilly!

Question of the Day

• Have you ever attended or participated in a big city parade?

I have actually performed in a few of them.  Growing up in Orlando, there were plenty around to take a part in.  When I was in elementary school I remember hopping around on moon shoes with Chip ‘n Dale like a bunny for an Easter parade at Disney!  As a dancer in college, I walked and rode in a few local parades in Tampa, and as a dancer for the Orlando Magic, I  rode in a few Christmas floats.  I love parades! 🙂