Thanksgiving

Milena and her kids decided to come north for the holiday.  The night before Thanksgiving, we were planning to go to watch the balloons be inflated.  They apparently stop at 8 pm and then close off all the roads, and we got there at 9:00, so we couldn't walk by.  But we could see some of the balloons from across the street.

The next morning, we got up early and walked over to Central Park West.  We were able to see the inflated balloons still tied down and getting ready for the parade.  

Here they are starting to get them ready to join the parade.

We found a spot right at the beginning of the parade and heard the announcer say "Join the Parade!" for each float, band and balloon.  

Before the parade started, here are some participants getting their picture taken by the press.

I don't know what any of these characters are named :)

Viking clowns

Sesame Street float

Trolls

 Paw Patrol 

Mt. Rushmore (or Count Rushmore, if you are Joey Tribiani) on the South Dakota float with Smokey Robinson 

98 degrees.  Milena yelled out "HI NICK!" 

Jimmy Fallon was taking pictures of us with his phone

I invited LT to come with us to the parade, but then she scored some tickets to watch from the bleachers. She took this great picture and sent it to me.

Pictures from my trip to CO

Playing at the playground

At the library

Eating ice cream, right out of the pint, as it should be!

Fall tradition

It didn't feel like fall yesterday (high of 90 degrees), but we went apple picking anyway.  

Cuba part 7

Now that Hurricane Irma appears to have destroyed much of the Caribbean, including Cuba, I'll finish my posts.  On my last day in Havana, we got a guided tour of a few sights.  This is a hotel where Hemingway hung out and lived.

This is a bar where Hemingway used to drink, and apparently they have the best mojitos in Havana.  Look at the line!  This was 11 am.  

It wasn't clear what this guy was doing but he was set up with a typewriter outside of La Bodeguita Del Medio.

A stereotypical shot of Havana.

A park near our hotel with this statue of someone I don't remember. 

One of my coworkers is from Havana and asked me to find the restaurant that her parents used to run.  This is the street, but there wasn't a restaurant there anymore.  

Here you can also see one of the pedicabs.    

she didn't remember the exact address, so I just took pictures of the whole street.  There are just tourist shops there, now.  She had vague memories of the gates that go up and down, but she didn't remember much else about the street.  

This the top of the building, and you can see some broken windows.  I wasn't sure if the rest of the building was inhabited or not.  

Random graffiti on someone's house.

We were able to find a bakery.  Although the selection wasn't great, the things were tried were delicious.

This was a typical meal -- white fish and rice.  

I thought we would be able to get flan everywhere we went, but we only had it twice -- both times in Havana.

Milena's parents at dinner

Photobomb!

Fruit cart

Line up of classic cars.  Some tourists wanted to ride in these, but we chose the air conditioned cars.  

This red Oldsmobile was my favorite.  In the background, you see all the tour buses picking up passengers from the cruise ships.  

Last day... saying good bye to Havana!  We went to the "Chocolate Museum" and then I went to the airport.  Everyone else stayed another day and saw the other side of the city, which I didn't get to see, so I have a reason to go back, someday.  

Cuba part 6

Just like a lot of places in Europe and elsewhere, Havana had city squares throughout.  This is the one with the cathedral, which was beautiful.

Walking towards the plaza.

Cathedral by night (we had dinner at a restaurant facing the cathedral).

Inside the cathedral.  

I can't imagine sitting in a service while tourists come in and take pictures, but that's what happens, I suppose, when the cathedral is as beautiful as this.  

Some portraits of saints (I think)