Associated Press
NEW YORK -- Giant balloons, floats, marching bands and clowns with confetti brought smiles to hundreds of thousands of revelers eager to catch a glimpse of a parade as steeped in Thanksgiving Day tradition as turkey and pumpkin pie.
Crowds six to seven people deep lined the streets of Manhattan on Thursday for the 83rd annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade as merrymakers gathered nationwide for massive parades in cities such as Detroit and Philadelphia.
Soldiers in war zones received phone calls of appreciation from President Barack Obama, while astronauts hovering above the Earth's surface feasted on turkey smuggled aboard the space shuttle Atlantis.
In New York City, Miss America Katie Stam waved to crowds from a Statue of Liberty float she shared with Meb Keflezighi, the first American in 11 years to win the New York City Marathon.
Shailesh Dighe and his family came to the parade to snap pictures of celebrities. Dighe said the parade is "totally worth it."
"When you watch it on TV, you don't get that feeling," said Dighe, who splits his time between Manhattan and Princeton, N.J.
For the first time, the parade route bypassed Broadway, which cuts a diagonal slice through Manhattan, as it made its way south from the Upper West Side to Macy's flagship store in Herald Square.
The new route is slightly longer than the old -- 2.65 miles compared with 2.5 miles.
Elsewhere, tens of thousands gathered in the streets of downtown Detroit for the 83rd annual America's Thanksgiving Parade. The country's longest-run Thanksgiving Day parade was held in Philadelphia for its 90th year.
In Detroit, where the September unemployment rate was 17.3 percent, parade organizers set up three locations where revelers could drop off donations of canned food for the area food bank.
Obama enjoyed a quiet holiday at the White House with his family and telephoned 10 members of the U.S. military stationed in war zones to thank them for their service.
