Puerto Rican Day Parade

This is just a quick post today to share some photos I took from last Sunday's parade. They say that two million people attend this every year. They close off Fifth Avenue for forty blocks or so and put up barricades that take one full lane on each side of the street and in effect incorporate those lanes into the sidewalk. This year they shortened the parade from seven hours to five hours. These photos were taken about four hours into the parade and it didn't seem to be winding down, although it was probably a little louder earlier based on the spent aerosol noise makers in the curb.

I have been asked several times if it was like the Seinfeld episode. They did a pretty good job depicting the noise and excitement and the buzz. The city does block off the cross streets most of the time, occasionally letting cars through between floats but it is really easy to avoid getting caught up in the traffic and most of it runs along the eastern edge of Central Park which is closed to weekend traffic anyway.

I do have to say that an episode of Seinfeld does come to mind almost every day I am here. I step out to the sidewalk and see things that George would say, "That's an episode."