Ringing in the New Year!

It has been, for quite some time, a desire of mine to watch the ball drop in Times Square on New Year's Eve. Although Richard did not share the same enthusiasm for this as me, he did arrange our trip and this afternoon we were at Times Square! People started gathering by early afternoon- and we watched them from the window of our hotel (Marriott New York Marquis) which is on Times Square.

The view from our hotel room is spectacular but does not face where the ball drops- those rooms were $1750 per night! 

We ventured down about 4:00 and immediately realized we should have gone out earlier. After being directed from one street to a farther street to an even farther street, we finally decided to head back to the hotel and see if we could find a back way or, failing that, go watch it on tv in our room. God was directing our footsteps, however, and we ended up in line for a "pen" made of crowd control barricades right outside our hotel. As you can imagine, there was a very strong police presence- the ones with "Counter Terrorism" on their backs were more than a little disconcerting. Security was very tight- streets were blocked off with concrete barriers, police were directing pedestrians, I was wanded twice and our bags were checked several times. 

Yes, those are BIG guns! As part of their security plan, the hotels on Times Square issued special New Year's Eve keycards- which we had to show to go down the street by the hotel as well as to get in the hotel anytime after 4pm.

By 5:30 we were situated in the "pen" area and began the long wait. Once in, you can't leave and come back... and there are no bathrooms. Although we took some snacks and water bottles, we realized we needed to ration them sparingly. We listened to (and sometimes could see) the bands playing on the stages... Rick Springfield, Backstreet Boys (who are now men!), New Kids on the Block, Kesha  to name a few. 

Finally, at 6:00 the ball, which is 12 feet in diameter, is raised up amid fireworks!

We passed the time chatting with people around us- ALL of them considerably younger. One young man said that he gave us a lot of credit for doing this... ouch =) 

I asked a police officer how many people they expected and he said probably more than a million! Most of the people were considerate and pleasant. A few people thought they could push their way to the barricade (and have a chance of being on tv) at 11:00 but they backed off when no one made room for them. The crowd got bigger and bigger but no one was out of control. 

This is not the place for people who are claustrophobic or have personal space issues!

Confetti began falling at 8:00. Every hour on the hour they did another fireworks show around the ball. And, of course, the announcers revved the crowd up. This was a street party of gigantic proportion!

We heard them say that over 2000 pounds of confetti were released throughout the night. It was absolutely beautiful to watch floating down!

At long last, it was time for the final countdown. The crowd roared. Balloons were waving in the air. Everyone was making sure their honey was nearby to kiss. TEN! ... NINE! ...

EIGHT!...

SEVEN!... (the crowd roars louder!)... SIX! ... FIVE! ... FOUR! ...

THREE! ...

TWO!... ONE! ...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

It was an experience not to be missed. God blessed us in many ways. We met some nice people. The weather was fabulous. We ended up in an outstanding location through no effort of our own. Would we do it again? Perhaps...