Thanksgiving Day

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, so I thought I would go down and checkout the parade. It was pretty impressive, there were plenty of marching bands from around the country (I even saw one from Texas).

The bands played everything from Classical Music to Christmas Carols to Pink Floyd. Some of them consisted of a couple hundred marchers with large drum sections that were pumping out some really cool beats. They often bobbed, turned and kind of danced in formation as they marched along.

A few bands had people throwing their batons and sticks in the air and catching them. Some even had cheerleaders in front who would do the cheerleading stunts when the band was marching on the spot. Here are a couple photos I took of some marching bands. Unfortunately I could not capture the sound, motion and general atmosphere in these photos.



These guys were playing "Another Brick in the Wall" boppin' around and throwing their batons up in the air:




I didn't get the camera out quick enough to catch these cheerleaders doing their flips/catches etc:



And some Tap Dancers... They would march along and quickly stop to drop their wood boards and do a tap dance every now and then:



There were also lots of floats and balloons in the parade. There was even an Elvis impersonator singing Christmas Carols on a float. The parade went for a few hours, but I was only there to see about an hour of it.

It was fun to watch and everyone there was happy and cheerful with the crowd often cheering and applauding. There were lots of young children having plenty of fun. I guess Americans have a lot to be thankful for. Americans are very festive and always go the extra mile for special occasions. Last month the streets and homes were decorated for Halloween, there was even a (small) parade. This month there was Thanksgiving with plenty of lights and Christmas decorations going up.

Next month will be Christmas. The buildings, trees and homes are still being decorated in Christmas decorations. Almost every tree in the downtown area is covered in lights and there are lots of wreaths and other greenery etc layed out around the place. I'll have to get some pictures, so people know what I am on about.

Back to the parade, here are some more photos of various floats, balloons etc. I'll try to squeeze in as many as possible in this little space (clicking on the images will enlarge them):



Kermit squeezes under the trainline:





I took over a hundred photos, so I better stop before I run out of space...