Macy's Parade Balloon Inflation

This year we went the day before Thanksgiving to see the Parade Balloons being inflated. It's free to go, but you have to enter at a particular place and deal with huge crowds.

The first few balloons we saw:

Kung Fu Panda's ass:

I liked seeing how many sandbags it took to stabilize the balloons:

Here's a look up the street:

Here's the head of the Kung Fu Panda balloon, and a small vehicle for size comparison:

A bunch of smaller round balloons:

Here some workers are securing SpongeBob Squarepants. I did notice that his arm was oddly bent by the straps, and still kind of bent the next day:

The sidewalks the crowd walked on surround the Natural History Museum. There were big floodlights set up so that the balloons could be easily seen.

Kool-Aid Man was being moved to a new position as we walked by, at first we thought he was deflating.

Erin took this picture of a balloon dog's butt.

All the balloons have spots where their tie-downs are secured

The Aflac Duck:

That pile that looks like a dying plastic jellyfish is actually Buzz Lightyear, in the process of inflating. 

Sonic was a great looking balloon, I may have taken a few shots:

As we rounded the corner, there was a line of news vans waiting like vultures.

The view over the crowd as we approached the second line of balloons:

Erin really wanted a picture of Spider-bunny:

The Snoopy balloon is getting a little worse for wear, (click to enlarge):

Better picture of Spiderman. The crowd got really thick here:

Pikachu was in progress:

Workers propping up a half-inflated Pokemon:

A giant smurf was trapped:

The last big balloon was Kermit: