Happy New Year at Times Square!

Nick and I were able to spend Christmas in New York (look forward to future posts).
Our friends Jon & Jaclyn joined us for New Years, and we braved the cold and the crowds to experience New Years Eve in Times Square!

We heard that once you get a spot on Times Square, you aren't aloud to leave and come back-which is true. That means hours with no food and no bathroom breaks. We prepared by wearing clothes with lots of pockets and packing them with food to see us through.
Jac and I also made sure to sport the traditional 2012 glitter glasses!

There were NYPD officers everywhere. Here is one of their "home base" streets. It was fun to hear their New York accents. They were very kind, even if none of them seemed to know where to tell people to go.

We got there at 2:00 and after about 30 minutes walking all around the blocks to find a place where they were letting people in we made it to a decent spot on 48th and Broadway. We had a straight shot of the ball and weren't too far from the stage, even though we couldn't see it.

The areas filled in quickly after that, so we're glad we got there early.

Here are the views of the crowds in front of us and behind us:

And there we stood for 10 hours . . .

The middle picture below shows our actual view of the ball. With our new camera, we were able to take some great zoomed-in shots as well.

The final countdown!

The traditional New Years kiss.

Here's a breakdown of the good and the bad about our New Years Eve in Times Square:

The Good

• warm weather
• friendly people from all over the world
• playing cards
• plenty of time to play around with our new camera
• great view of the ball
• friends to talk to and share memories with
• enough room to sit on the ground once in a while
• once-in-a-lifetime memories
• experiencing the excitement of the countdown with so many people
  

The Bad

• standing for 10 hours and walking for 2
• bad directions from cops
• the advertisement screen directly behind the ball
• practically no entertainment - maybe only 8-10 min of videos/performances each hour
• everyone around you somehow having pizza delivered and not knowing how to get some