Macy parade and football games both professional as well as high school highlight the day’s activities
Nearly three million people took to the streets of New York to enjoy the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. They were surrounded by nearly eight thousand New York police and federal agencies making sure they were safe.
One prominent person who wasn’t in New York City is President-elect Donald Trump, who is spending the holiday at his home in Palm Beach, Florida. The new southern White House is where the soon to be new first family will be enjoying Thanksgiving.
Throughout Florida there will be Thanksgiving Day parades and high school football games that are a tradition. But the busy weekend will be highlighted by Black Friday shopping, plenty of great college football and leftovers.
That said we all enjoy the great parade that features Charlie Brown led the signature large inflatable balloons as the parade kicked off with the spraying of confetti and a ceremonial ribbon-cutting. Costumes characters mingled with revelries and crowds cheered as clowns on bicycles rode by carrying bundles of balloons.
Crowds, some as many as 10 deep, lined the parade route, which starts on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and makes its way down to Macy’s flagship store on 34th Street. At one point the parade route comes within three blocks of Trump Tower, the home of the president-elect’s home.
The Charlie Brown balloon was one of three new giant character inflatables in this year’s parade, and joined returning favorites including Thomas the Tank Engine, Hello Kitty and SpongeBob SquarePants, were some of the new balloons in the parade.
Among the celebrities that were part of the show, were Tony Bennett, Aloe Blacc, Sarah McLachlan and Olympic gold medalists Laurie Hernandez, Claressa Shields and Michelle Carter.
But attendees also saw some somber sights, like the more than 80 sanitation trucks filled with sand placed at intersections and other places as barriers against any kind of attack. There was a heavy police presence, including bomb-sniffing dogs and officers in uniform with assault weapons and portable radiation detectors. Officers in plainclothes were among the crowds of people.
Authorities said there was no confirmation of any credible threat and urged spectators to come out for the parade. Earlier this week in the official ISIS magazine, they said that the parade would be an “attractive target.”
Some quotes in this story came from ASSOCIATED PRESS.
