We’ve had two full days (and one painfully early morning) in New York City, so you’ll forgive me for not updating sooner.
On Monday we drove up to New York City. Traffic getting into the city was normal, which is to say it took us until close to lunchtime to get into Manhattan from Wayne, NJ. We went to the Battery area first, to board the boat out to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It was my first time being on either island. The closest I’d been previously was a boat ride that went around the statue but didn’t stop. After Ellis Island we walked up to the 9/11 memorial. I saw it the last time we were in the city, but it is still very moving, of course. We tried to go to Trinity Church but it is closed for renovations and the chapel was closed for the evening by the time we got up there. The kids had a good day, if somewhat long. We got to the hotel by about 9:30p, but with a 4a call time in the morning, it wasn’t exactly a full night’s sleep. I was deep in some dream when Terry’s alarm went off and it seemed like to took me a *long* time to identify the noise when both of our alarms went off at once. Turns out Terry was already awake but wanted to wait until I turned off my alarm before he turned off his to make sure I was really awake too. 🙂 Friends.
Yesterday we got up early to go to the Today show, where we once again managed to get the group on camera. In the past they’ve sometimes let us sing for the show, but this time it was just for the Sirius Radio broadcast of the audio. We did get the choir on the one of their bumper clips, and made a star out of Ansleigh. After that we split up into small groups to explore NYC. My group went to St. Patrick’s cathedral and Central Park, did some shopping, ate lunch at Rockefeller Center, walked through Times Square, past the New York Public Library and Bryant Park and down to Grand Central Station, ate dinner, and wandered back up to Rockefeller Center through Times Square (again), before the highlight of the evening (for me at least) attending the Broadway performance of “Wicked”. I recommend that show even if you’re not a “theater person”. The music is insanely good, and the story moves well enough that you can easily follow it. Even though some of the choir were having trouble staying awake, I was pleased at the number of kids who are not involved in theater who told me that they really enjoyed it!
After two nights in the same hotel (!!) we’re now headed up to Montreal. Tonight we’ll sing at a church in Montreal and then head to our hotel/home for the next two nights. Tomorrow will be mostly spent at the Six Flags park in Montreal. 🙂 I’m starting to enjoy the tradition of hitting amusement parks on the off-year tours.
We’re past halfway through the trip now, and Thursday we’ll start to head back towards home in earnest.