We have documented each day of the trip in pictures and a few words. Please make sure you see the post from each day, so you get the full effect.

We really had an amazing time, and that is because of the wonderful students, parents and chaperones who attended. My sincere thanks goes to all of them.

Please feel free to leave comments. I know everyone would like to hear what you have to say or think about what you see here!

- Ms. Keefe

PS – Holly Hull, who attended the trip, would like everyone who went to see this.

On the way there, we traveled through the Garment District. This is a picture of the info kiosk there:

For the Project Runway fans, here is Parsons The New School, where they do the show. It’s acros from the button and needle thing:

Greenwich Village is lovely. Most of the houses look like this, on quiet, tree-lined streets:

And on the same street is the building that is the facade of the building on Friends:

Our tour guide was all about the food…and she mainly took us to Greenwich Village to visit bakeries. Here she is telling us about two to choose from, and how to pick where to go get our treats:

But everyone found something delicious – either tarts or cookies or gelatto or canoli…and then we headed to Grand Central Terminal.

We didn’t have tons of time here, but we did get to eat lunch, see the market:

Witness the setting up of a press conference for:

…complete with:

Then we waited for our bus driver across the street:

And then Zora realized he was on the wrong side, and she was upset that we would miss our tour at the United Nations.

But…we made it there! This is a picture of the General Assembly room.

After the United Nations, we boarded the bus for the ride home. We were tired, and watched You’ve Got Mail and rested our feet.

But were were up and at ‘em and on the bus by 7:30 this morning. Our first stop was Battery Park and the Circle Line Ferry to Ellis Island. We arrived early enough that we were through security and on the 10 a.m. ferry.

We didn’t get off at the Statue of Liberty, but we did have excellent views of it.

We got off the boat at Ellis Island and spent the rest of the morning exploring there.

In this hall could be as many as 5,000 immigrants each day.

People would wait and hope that they weren’t one of the 10% of immigrants not allowed to enter the United States.

Back on the bus, we headed to Ground Zero. On the way, we passed this piece of art, which used to sit between the Twin Towers. It was a gold sphere. After 9/11, they found the pieces and put it back together:

Rescue workers found these steel beams like this in the wreckage after 9/11. This now stands on Canal Street near Ground Zero:

Also at Ground Zero is a 9/11 museum. These are thousands of paper cranes made by Japanese school children and given to the city of New York as a symbol of hope. They hang over a stairwell in the museum:

Around 2, we were ready to see some sights from the bus, so our tour guide, Zora, showed us the sights around Wall Street, then we headed up toward SoHo (which we learned is short for south of Houston (pronounced HOW-ston)), Chinatown and Little Italy.

We had a couple of hours to shop in those areas until we met for dinner at Puglia’s in Little Italy. While we were finishing eating their resident accordian player came out and gave us a little show, and we sang along (some even danced!).

Quick change of clothes and we were headed to our Broadway stop – 7 p.m. Beauty and the Beast.

We get to sleep in a bit tomorrow…and we’ll be headed home in the afternoon.

We are all tucked into our beds and completely exhausted after a beautiful day in New York City!

All of the travelers arrived bright and early this morning, and we had some breakfast before loading up (tons of) our bags. We met our awesome bus driver, Larry, and were on our way!

On the bus, Ms. Samuels (K) took a little nap, but most people chatted and had a great time.

We hit no traffic, and were in New York by 11:15 a.m.

We met our tour guide Zora, and she told us to eat lunch at the Variety Cafe, which we did.

Then we set out to see some sights. Like Rockefeller Center.

Our most exciting site of the day wasn’t planned. We were on Fifth Avenue, and we were walking toward St. Patrick’s Cathedral. We saw a big, black Escalade, followed by a limo with the back window down, followed by another big, black Escalade. We were intrigued.

See how intrigued Sara and Shanna are? Oh, and Ms. Fisher looks thrilled. But Matt , Matt sees something. He’s going to look right into that limo. Are you looking?

We were able to peak into the windows, and see who was in the backseat… Could it be? Mrs. Shearer can’t believe her eyes…

It is! It is Jay-Z! Right there!

He’s so happy we found him!!!
And a lot of the kids had this reaction, like Amanda’s:

But then we had to compose ourselves, to go to St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

And we got everyone to sit for long enough to take their picture…and they even look kinda happy about it!

Then we did some shopping at Saks (well, looking there) The Disney Store, FAO Schwartz, the Apple Store and NBC Experience.

The Genie from Aladdin was at Disney:

Watched kids play on the Giant Piano at F.A.O. Schwartz…

The Apple Store is underground!

Oh, and THIS:

Back on the bus, we saw:

(Radio City Music Hall)

Duke Ellington (this is in Harlem, West of Central Park)

The Apollo Theater, Harlem….

Central Park

Ed Sullivan Theater

Then we went to Times Square:

Where we saw the “World’s Biggest Wall of Chocolate” at the M&M Store:

Then we headed to dinner, at the Hard Rock:

And got to Empire State Building just before sunset, and with very little line, which made Talina, Sara, Shanna and Matt smile:

And at the top, it was windy and cold, but it looked like this, so it didn’t really matter:

Whew! What a day! Check back in later for more!

Our Itinerary includes:

 Monday, May 14

• Fifth Avenue Shopping, Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick’s Cathedral
• Upper Manhattan: Harlem, Grant’s Tomb
• Hard Rock Cafe
• Empire State Building Observatory

Tuesday, May 15

• Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
• South Street Seaport
• Greenwich Village & SoHo
• Chinatown and Little Italy
• Beauty and the Beast

Wednesday, May 16

• Wall Street Area: Bowling Green, Trinity Church, Federal Reserve Bank
• United Nations tour

Check here each day for updates and photographs!