Senior Class Trip # 3 with CA - slow learners?

Last Sat. night we loaded up two SAU buses with 80 of our seniors and 12 sponsors and pulled out about 9:40 headed to Historic Philadelphia.

Our fun-lovin' great group of 13 kids (minus one, Katie V. who took the picture)

Independence Hall

At a gift shop in the Brouse where we had lunch Sunday in the food court

We enjoyed the tour of Independence Hall, and then wandered around the area, seeing other historic sites - like the original Declaration of Independence, Liberty Bell, the Betsy Ross House, Christ Church, etc.

Betsy Ross House

The students in our group really got a kick out of a sidewalk band that we followed around for awhile. They even played requests for us.

Notice my souvenir from the entire trip that I bought in Philadelphia?

At the end of our afternoon, I went on a carriage ride with 5 in our group to see more of the historic area. That was a special treat! Six others in our group also did a carriage tour.

We drove on up to the Big Apple and arrived at our hotel around 9 p.m. After worship and room check, we fell into bed. There wasn't much sleep for us Sat. night on the bus, as we remembered from previous senior class trip over-nighters. We get worse at sleeping on the bus,rather than better.

Monday we took the ferry to Liberty and Ellis Islands in foggy, wet weather.

This is from the Twin Towers near the Battery Park ferry dock

We got on the subway going the wrong direction (went to Brooklyn) and then we walked all over lower Manhattan Monday afternoon after tasty NY style pizza at Lombardi's in Little Italy. The kids loved bargain hunting in China Town and did NOT come home empty handed. We kept looking for "I hate NY" t-shirts to buy, but never found them. ;)

Notice the lack of grass in the playground in the city.

Ground Zero

It spit/rained a lot on us the 3 days in the city but it could have been a whole lot worse! We were never on the streets in a downpour.

Trinity Church on Wall Street

Wall Street's financial district

Woops, hope the guy/statue wasn't important since we missed his face!

Monday night we took a Grayline 2-hour double decker bus tour (but it was spitting and cold). It felt good riding around to see the sites instead of walking more!

Tourists don't leave the hotel without a subway map and a good pair of reading glasses!

at the Metropolitan Art Museum Temple of Dendure

The Richards Room was my favorite in the new American Wing at the Art Museum

Central Park

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Tuesday we didn't leave the hotel until after 10 - what a nice change! We walked through Central Park on our way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We ate lunch at Rockefeller Center's food court and then shopped at H & M on 5th Avenue and took the subway at rush hour (what a nightmare!) to the Orpheum Theater to see STOMP. What a great show they put on again. It's amazing the rhythm they make with brooms, dust pans, newspapers, barrels, lighters, and you name it!

Wednesday we loaded the luggage into the bus at 8:30 a.m. and then struck out for Times Square on the subway for shopping. Some of us ate at TGI Friday right on Times Square (what a rip off - I paid $8.29 for a very small southwestern salad!) and others went to Sbarro.

We went into Swatch, a huge Toys R Us, the M & M Store, Anthropoligie, Godiva, and then it was lunch time. We wandered around till matinee time at Snapple Theatre - "The Fantasticks" wasn't that Fantastic we didn't think (but we are comparing it to Les Miserables that we got to see 4 years ago). Then it was wander in the rain time till our Top of the Rock visit at 7. So we mostly hung out at Rockefeller Center where we ate in the food court again - I ate a veggie patty sub every day on the trip.

The view was nice from the 70th floor up top, though it soon got socked in with rain, so we left sooner than we'd planned. Nobody minded loading up on the bus to head for home - leaving the cement jungle behind.

It was a good senior class trip - nobody got left behind on the subway or had to be flown home early due to mischief, or got robbed, stabbed, or worse. The Hampton Inn was very nice but not as nice as our bed at home! We had a great group of 13 kids to see the sights with - they made it fun for us, in spite of the subway stress. Three of the guys had smart phones with GPS so that was a huge help getting around the city. So were the New Yorkers very helpful with our getting around on the subway. We have much to be thankful for and are glad the trip is now in our rear view mirror. I hope our next class trip will be to heaven with no uncomfortable overnight bus trips.