Thanksgiving Day Parade

The St Louis Thanksgiving parade takes place in Downtown St Louis on Thanksgiving Day morning. I watched the parade the first year that I moved to the US (as I was living Downtown) but Cheryl & Beth have never seen the parade so we decided that we would go & watch it in person. I have a parking pass to a car park (which I use for work) & since this wasn't on the parade route we decided to park there & walk to the parade. Unfortunately, I hadn't planned on the parade organizers shutting off most of Downtown so we ended up parking on the street (at least the parking meters weren't in operation as Thanksgiving day is a public holiday in the US) at the far end of the parade route. One of the main common features of Thanksgiving Day parades across the US is giant helium filled balloons. These are dragged along by a team of 'balloonists' & when the crowd shouts 'spin, spin', the team runs around in a circle to make the balloon spin around.

This year's parade had a 'spacey' feel to it with the Honorary Grand Marshal being Major Robert Behnken, who is a St Louis native, NASA astronaut, a Major in the US Air Force & was on Space Shuttle Mission STS-123 to the International Space Station. The giant helium balloons included: Buzz the Astronaut, the Space Shuttle, Blue Angel fighter airplane, Louie the Lightning Bug, Rudolph the Reindeer, Father Christmas, Felix the Cat, & the Little Drummer Boy. Other parade participants included numerous marching bands from area schools, car clubs, parade floats, & the Moolah Shriners (in their mad go-carts). It was really cold for the parade (temperatures were around zero), but it was very sunny & there was no snow this year!