About two weeks ago, 39 seniors and six chaperons along with two tour guides boarded the bus and headed out on a ten hour-long ride to the Big Apple. For many of us, it was our first time journeying to New York, making it a senior trip to be remembered by all.

We finally arrived in the city early that Monday morning and immediately began our day. Once we partially checked into our hotel, the Hotel Edison located in Time Square, the group embarked on what would turn out to be a very eventful day. The first stop was a walking tour around various historical areas in Manhattan. We stopped to take a look at the New York Public Library, which is the second largest in the United States behind the Library of Congress. After leaving its front steps, a stop inside of St. Patrick’s Cathedral was next on the agenda. This too, was a massive building and the stained glass was absolutely beautiful. After that, we walked even further and all broke up into groups for lunch and a little bit of free time perfect for shopping around the very famous toy store F.A.O. Schwartz. Many of the seniors took this opportunity to head to the second floor of the toy story to walk across the big piano. The last major destination of the day was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or otherwise called the Met. Every possible type of art was held in this museum, from sculptures to paintings to artifacts and so much more.

The cold was just too much so everyone decided to pile into cabs and head back to the hotel to get ready for the wonderful meal we would soon have at Carmines, a famous Italian New York chain. The food was served family style and there was too much, despite how delicious everything was, to even put a dent into each dish. We rushed through the end of our dinner to make it just in time to catch the opening scene of our evening entertainment, the Broadway show, The Phantom of the Opera. This event would wrap up our first day in the big city!

The second day was even better than the first. We woke up bright and early to begin the day at the famous Today Show. We were let into the area surrounding the outdoor plaza. It was freezing cold out as the wind-chill was at a low of negative six degrees. The guests of the show were none other than famous ‘90s rock artist, Kid Rock, and the most recent winner of the Daytona 500, Joey Logano. Being right outside we were able to meet both of these guys and even get some pictures with them. Once it got a little too cold out, some of the group headed to the inside the next building. Ann Claire Roberson celebrated her 18^th birthday by going into the NBC studio along with nine other students to see Kid Rock perform one of the songs off of his new album. Ann Claire said that, “It was really fun to celebrate my 18^th birthday in New York and to meet Kid Rock and watch him perform.”

Next on the list was ice skating at Rockefeller Center. This was such an enjoyable experience because it gave our class a real chance to bond. This was followed by a trip up to Top of the Rock which has some of the best views of Manhattan and lunch at Grand Central Terminal. Then the bus came to pick us up and the whole class did a driving tour of Wall Street and Battery Park. Due to the fact that the Hudson River was frozen because of the cold weather, our scheduled ride on the Circle Line boat tour was cancelled. In place of this event, the class was given a few extra hours to do some more shopping before we met for dinner at John’s Pizza and headed to see a hockey game at Madison Square Garden. The New York Rangers took on the Calgary Flames and were able to win with a score of 1-0. This event ended the night and everyone began to get ready for their last day.

Day three included three main destinations on the itinerary. It started at the 9/11 memorial and museum. This was such a meaningful experience and I can think that I can speak for my fellow seniors to say that this was one of the best experiences of the trip. Our class was the very first Rocky Mount Academy senior class to be able to go inside the museum as it opened spring of last year. We were only given an hour in the actual museum, but it seems like everyone agreed that we needed more time to be able to fully see all aspects of it. This museum was unlike any other that I had personally ever been in as it was set up in a very creative way. The bus picked us back up from a few blocks from the memorial and took us all the way over to the China Town, Little Italy, and SoHo area. The day was filled with fun shopping, good food, and a brutal fifty block walk back to the hotel. We had dinner on our own and finished the night by seeing another Broadway play, Kinky Boots. This show was absolutely amazing. It was so fun and exciting and the music was fantastic. Later when we had arrived back at school, we found out that our class was in the same Broadway Theater as the legendary Beatle Paul McCartney. That event concluded our fabulous trip to New York City.

It will be a trip that our class will treasure forever, especially now as we finish out our last few months together before we graduate and head off our separate ways next year.