The big parade

I was really excited to enjoy something new with Jackson this year – the Carolinas Carrousel Parade in Charlotte!  Since my family celebrated the holiday early, I had no real plans on Thanksgiving, and without the hosting duties I usually have, I thought we’d enjoy the parade in the morning before J headed off to celebrate with his dad’s family. 

We arrived early enough to score front row seats (and I LOVE working uptown so I can have free, close parking for events like this!).  And, funny enough, it wasn’t planned, but we ended up sitting near the end of the parade, and it just so happened it was right where the news station films and commentates!  There were several cameras at various angles, and one directly across from us!  I don’t think we ended up on the broadcast though, at least not close enough for recognition. 

To be honest though, the parade didn’t “wow” me as much as I anticipated – I kept hearing things referring to it as the 4th largest parade in the nation, and the largest in the southeast, so I expected it to be really awesome.  What I didn’t realize, is that they don’t broadcast everything (they edit and show it later in the day), so there were still a solid amount of so-so participants and large gaps in the actual parade.  And it seemed to last forever!  Jackson lost his patience pretty early in, and we ended up having to leave before it finished.  In the end though, I’m still glad we opted to check it out, and there were a handful of neat things we saw.  But going forward, I think we’re better off sticking to the local, shorter parades :) 

Waiting to watch :)

I snapped a cool shot of some buildings and the locally-famous firebird statue in the forefront. :)  We were posted up near the statue on Tryon St.

My little can’t-sit-still boy decided to inspect the grate in the street … close enough so that he got his nose dirty.  ewwwwwww!

Jackson’s favorite part was watching any interesting cars/trucks drive through.  The retro Meck police car fleet was neat :)

I could not stop laughing at the deflated turkey float… what a mess!

pretty neato Krispy Kreme blast from the past

we were sitting directly in the sun, so we got pretty warm toward the end, and Jackson insisted on keeping his shirt pulled up … It was shortly thereafter I decided it was probably time to go :)