One Field Trip Down, One to Go

Not the dreaded field trip I complained about in an earlier post. This one I was actually looking forward to. E's drama club put together a day trip to NYC. We took a 4 and a half hour bus ride to get there, visited Rockefeller Center, had a tour of Top of the Rock, saw Mary Poppins on Broadway and ate dinner at The Hard Rock Cafe.

The day started off 10 minutes earlier than when my alarm was supposed to go off, which was 4:30 in the AM. I was up every hour during the night for fear of alarm clock failure. Being 4:20 in the AM is much earlier than I usually get up, UGH!
E and I made it to the bus on time which left at 6AM. I was fortunate to be able to sit next to a really nice young woman for the 4 and a half hour drive. She, I’ll call her J, was the chaperone and cousin of E’s best friend, who I knew would be joined at the hip with E for the entire day. J who is exactly half my age, turned out to be a wonderful, friendly companion for the ride and for the entire day. She and I talked a lot about music and shared songs from our players. Being that she is so young, I was pleasantly surprised at her eclectic taste in music, similar to mine in many ways. She was great with the girls and readily held onto both girls arms at all times while walking the streets of NYC. E of course preferred this new young cool chaperone over me. I was not offended because E still kept calling “mama” whenever I would walk too far away. I found it very anxiety provoking trying to keep and eye on our kids while also keeping track of our group of 45 people, while getting bumped into every 5 minutes or so by other pedestrians. And, I would like to know, what all of these people were doing on this Wednesday afternoon, walking the streets. Soo many people, too many for me to tolerate more than a day. One thing I did find pleasantly surprising was how polite New Yorkers were. Every time someone bumped into me or I walked into one of them, they said “excuse me”. Never once did anyone yell at me and tell me to go back to Vermont! The only rude person we saw was a man driving a NJ vehicle and he gave our bus driver the finger. The kids loved that.
Our first stop was just a quick 10 minute visit to the edge of the water so we could see the Statue of Liberty. It was soooo cold and windy by the water, we only stayed 5 minutes. Next, we visited the Rockefeller Center Skating Rink where we witnessed crazy people actually seeming to have fun skating in the 20 degree weather. At noon we took a tour of The Top of the Rock. The view was gorgeous. After, our small group of 4 got separated from the main group for a few nerve wracking minutes. We knew where the theatre was, but we didn’t know how to find our way out of the building. Heh, heh. Then when the others showed up, one of the teachers actually accused us of wandering off. J and I stood up to him though, because after all, he is not our teacher.
We then walked 7 blocks to the theatre on Broadway. That is not a long way in NYC, but with 45 people all walking at once, it seemed like it took an hour. Mary Poppins was a hit with everyone. It was never one of my favorite movies, but I did enjoy the performance. I especially liked the “Step in Time” scene where everyone tap danced. I do have a couple complaints though. I was thinking for some reason that the seats at theatres on Broadway would be more comfy and spacious than the local theatre here in Vermont. Well, this is not the case. Apparently most theatres must have been built during the time people were skinnier and shorter. It was difficult to not be able to straiten my legs for an hour and a half at a time, and I am SHORT! My next complaint was the price of the refreshments. E and I were starving, as we were forced to eat our lunch at 9:30 AM, and the show was at 2 PM, so we bought a cookie. A $4 cookie! Mind you, it was a big cookie, but for that price it should have been the size of a pizza. The souvenirs were priced as I expected. $20 for a T-shirt for E, $20 for a Mary Poppins pop-up book.
Our last stop was The Hard Rock Café for dinner. By that time E was starting to be affected by all the noise and activity of the city and stated during dinner “I wish they could shut off the music in here”. I actually enjoyed watching the music videos while eating. But I also felt like I had enough sensory stimulation for one day by then.
One other thing I feel the need to add to this long (sorry) post is the NYC fashion. The times when I was able to take my eyes off my child, I did some people watching. Mostly because I was interested in what they were wearing. And the answer surprised me. JEANS. Almost everyone had on jeans. In particular I noticed a lot of “skinny” jeans worn tucked into high cut boots. I don’t know why this surprised me, I guess maybe I thought I would see at least a few fancy people, wearing the clothes like the ones modeled on The Today Show. Not so much.
We had a great time in NYC, and I hope I get another opportunity to go again soon, like in a year or so. My next field trip is tomorrow, where I head off the Albany, NY to see Sesame Street Live with T’s class. I am going to be exhausted by the end of this school break!

Photo's: Top right: View of The Rock from the ground. Middle left: View of the Empire State Building from The Top of the Rock. Bottom right: The New Amsterdam Theatre.(note, the clock is incorrect)