Traveling to the Big Apple
Earlier this month, the Choir Department and seniors from the Band Department (including me, the writer) visited New York City. A total of thirty people attended the trip. We visited various destinations around the city, along with seeing a Broadway musical. This was a trip for those who would love to explore one of the greatest cities in the world, and it was definitely a magical experience.
The trip began with a ten hour bus ride with some stops along the way. We left at about 8:30 in the evening on April 6th. Most of us barely got any sleep because of the excitement, or just the fact the seats barely reclined and it was pretty uncomfortable.
At about 6:30 in the morning the next day, we arrived at a rest stop outside of the city to change, brush our teeth, and fix our appearance from the ride. We continued to drive and entered the Lincoln Tunnel, which actually goes under the Hudson River, in order to get to New York City. We finally made it to New York City around 7:30 and the views were amazing; skyscrapers, taxi cars, New Yorkers walking to work, the adrenaline was the only thing that's keeping us awake for the trip ahead. Majority of the group have never been to the city before, so it was cool to see people’s first reactions to New York.
Our first stop of the day was the Rockefeller Center, located in the heart of Manhattan. The Rockefeller Center is a building full of shops and different places to eat for breakfast.
The first official tour we took was at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, known as the largest gothic-style Catholic cathedral in the U.S. At 143 years old, it still has services for the people of NYC.
After St. Patrick’s Cathedral, we toured Radio City Music Hall Backstage. The music hall is the largest theater in the U.S. and home to the famous Rockettes! We got to see where rehearsal rooms are located and we also went to the very top of the theater in a viewing box that is for V.I.Ps. We also learned that the interior is designed to look like the sunrise. Radio City Music Hall also hosts the Tony Awards and the MTV Video Music Awards.
Next, we headed to Fifth Avenue to get some lunch, and the perfect lunch for your first day is NY-style pizza (I recommend Ray’s). After lunch we attended a workshop that was hosted by Broadway performers. We learned a song and dance from a musical that we were seeing the next day, Moulin Rouge.
The second day felt more rushed than the last, but it was fun as well. We walked and went on a self-guided tour of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, compared to St. Patrick, it’s the largest cathedral in the world. Afterwards, we went to Central Park to take pictures of the beautiful scenery. It was a nice day, about mid-sixties, and a lot of trees had blossomed flowers. Central Park is also home to Strawberry Fields, a memorial for John Lennon.
We walked around NYU (a lot of interesting things go on around there, considering it was a nice day and a bunch of college students were out of class). We then traveled to Dallas BBQ for dinner and attended a performance of Moulin Rouge, which was my first Broadway show experience, and it is currently my favorite.
The third day arrived faster than expected, but it was the best day. We rode a ferry over to Staten Island to view the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go on the actual island itself. After lunch, we visited the National September 11th Memorial and Museum. The museum is very large inside, but for the small amount we’ve seen, it was a very intense experience.
We then continued on with a tour of Little Italy and Chinatown, where a bunch of old random ladies tried to sell us fake designer purses, which was very convincing because I almost bought one. I tried milk tea with boba from Chinatown, and it was delicious. There were also a bunch of NYC gift shops.
Our final destination was to eat dinner and see Aladdin on Broadway. Unfortunately our trip was run short because there were technical difficulties for the show and they couldn’t perform. Everyone was pretty bummed, but we were able to shop for an hour and a half around Times Square.
We hopped back on the bus and in a fast 9 hours, we made it home Sunday morning.
