Like millions of other Americans, I grew up watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV at home in Montana.
But since moving to New York City two years ago, I'd never traveled to see the parade in real life. This year, however, I learned that people can watch the floats get inflated the day before the parade, and I was intrigued to get a behind-the-scenes look at the gigantic balloons.
Given that it's the day before the action, I imagined that seeing the floats would be less busy and overwhelming than the day of. And while it was certainly less crowded than the real event, it was still jam-packed with visitors — some of whom said they'd been standing in line for hours.
Walking through the floats, I wondered why anyone would do this. Of course, I did this — I actually wanted to do it, too — but within minutes, I was overwhelmed. And after having experienced it firsthand, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else.
Here's what it was like.