For the past two years, we have taken the kids out of school the day before Thanksgiving to see the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons being inflated.

We took the 9:50 train from West Haven to Grand Central Station, had our lunch on the train, then tool the subway from Grand Central to the Museum of Natural History.  That takes you right to the location where the balloons are.  It’s perfect.  We had great front-row seats to the balloons this year.  Somehow, when we arrived we were let into the area before it was open to the public.  I think it was the media access that was allowed in for the beginning of the afternoon before it opens to the public at 3:00.  We arrived around 1:15 so we had the entire area to ourselves!

November 23rd was the release of the new Disney movie Moana so I told the kids I wanted to see the movie on an opening day. Little did they know that it meant we were going to see the movie in New York City!  We saw all of the balloons and then went to Uno’s for dinner and then had to hop on the 1 train to 42nd street and then the 7 train to get to the 6 train (these are also notes to help us remember for next time). We got to the movie theater just in time for the 7:00 movie.  Then we had to make the trip from Lexington back to Grand Central Station to get back on our train to head home.

It was a great day, with perfect weather, and the movie was a great ending to the day.  The train got us back to West Haven just before midnight.  The kids liked the fact that we do things that take us the next day.  By the time all was said and done, I think we were in bed by 1:00 a.m.

If you are ever looking for something to do with your family this is a great time.  Last year we went to see the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular so we chose something different to do for our evening entertainment.  I’d love to stay overnight one year and see the parade up close.