That's a wrap!

Well, folks, we did it!

We successfully drug 70 people across the country to the largest city in the United States and back again without losing anyone (too badly ...)!

This feat would have been quite impossible without our amazing chaperones, and to them I am eternally grateful for being such a great team to work with. You all helped keep Mr. Puffett and myself (mostly) sane (most of) the time, and allowed the kids to have a fantastic and safe trip. Chaperones, you all are rock stars!

But the REAL heroes of this trip were our New York bus drivers Ellen and Dewey. They made those buses do things that buses should never have to do, and did it all with a slightly manic smile on their faces. Super!

Now, I know a lot of you are wondering if a collection of all the photos taken by myself and the other chaperones will be available. I say that YES, it will be! But whether that ends up being a physical disc of photos, or an online photo-sharing site has yet to be figured out. Stay tuned!

I'll leave you with just a few pictures from our final day in New York. Thank you for reading this blog ... according to the statistics, it's been viewed over 2000 times, so hopefully a lot of people out there got some enjoyment out of hearing about our adventures.

Here's to another trip in 4 years! And no, I don't know where we're going yet.

Day 5

Well, this is it! Our final night in New York! (And yes, I know we're technically staying in Jersey, but it sounds so much cooler to say "our final night in New York.")

And today was an awesome day! I know I've said that every day, but it's been true every day! We started out with a blessed extra hour of sleep. And boy, was that needed! These trips are a blast, but there's a reason why we only do them every four years! (Well, there are a LOT of reasons, but one of them is because they're just exhausting for everyone!) Then we hopped on our carriages and experience our first real taste of how crazy Manhattan traffic can be. Basically as soon as we exited the Holland Tunnel, it was mass chaos on the roads. Lanes were ignored, traffic lights were viewed as suggestions, cars were bullying themselves into position left and right ... It was just madness, and made me very greatful for our AMAZING bus drivers Ellen and Dewey! They kept their cool and got us through the gridlock safely and without incident. Part of there problems was that they were running the St. Patrick's Day 1/2 Marathon, which was cutting directly through the route we needed to take to get to the USS Intrepid museum.

Once we finally got to the museum, we had a blast! It was really quite fascinating. They have taken this aircraft carrier that was in full use (and war), docked it, loaded it up with a bunch of neat planes, and turned the rest of it into a museum. And was an incredibly fascinating experience to see the types of conditions the sailors had to put up with for months on time while always fearing for their life. They also had a flight simulator of sorts there. The group I was with decided to try it out in pairs. The device would flip you, spin you, turn you, whatever you made it do. Crazy for sure, but a load of fun as well.

Here are the folks in my crew who successfully experienced the flight simulator. And no one vomited!

After that museum, we loaded up to go to another museum, the Museum of Natural History. The kiss were excited about this one, as it is heavily featured in the first Night at the Museum film. This place had everything, from Dinosaurs to moon rocks to snake skeletons to Native American relics. We had three hours there and I still felt like we could have used more time ... We basically flew through as much as we could without stopping to read much of anything. As we got back to our meeting place, a couple of students came up to me with a gift. Now, I like gifts as much as the next guy, so I was excited ... Until a saw what it was: chocolate covered bugs. That's nasty. But, because they gave it to me as a very thoughtful gift, I had to eat them (remember kids, don't give in to peer pressure!). They actually didn't taste that bad (I mostly tasted chocolate), but the thought that I was eating bugs definitely made my stomach do some flips. I'm still living, though! We'll see if I make it through the night ...

Supper was at Dallas BBQ as our last big "all together meal" of the trip. Lots of delicious (and messy!) ribs, chicken, fries, corn bread ... Mmmmmm! After we got all messy because of the barbecue, we changed into our nice classy clothes and headed over to Carnegie Hall to hear the world-famous Vienna Philharmonic.

Now, everyone knows the rock stars and the sports stars of the world. These people are the Justin Biebers of the classical music world (except, you know, with talent, class, poise, talent, smarts, talent ...)! They are literally one of the top two or three orchestras in the world, playing in one of the best halls in the world. And, to top it all off, Diana Damrau performed a few pieces witht he orchestra! For you non-opera lovers out there, Diana is one of the best sopranos out there right now. Pretty amazing that the kids were able to experience something like this! It was a long concert (pushing three hours) and the seats were uncomfortable for some of the taller folks, so I'm afraid that they didn't enjoy it as much as they should, but I tried to impress on them how AWESOME it was that they were able to experience something like this! It helped that the music was performed impecably, of course.

And now it's bed time! Tomorrow brings either China Town or Madison Square Garden, then Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, then Times Square time. The kids have been bugging me about Times Square time all week ... Now that they have it, how much do you want to bet that they'll just go in all the same stores we have in Iowa? 

Enjoy the photos!

Day 4

It was brought to my attention today that there wasn't a blog update for Saturday! It wasn't because we all got mugged on the streets and are lying in a gutter somewhere ... I wrote the following blog and hit "publish," it just didn't go to the internet! So sorry about that. Here's Saturday's blog:

But first, I want to thank all of you mid-west readers for sending some of your warmer weather over here. It was in the mid-50's today, and partly sunny! Not too shabby! Of course, tomorrow is supposed to be 36 and Monday is supposed to be 28 with snow, but today was great!

We started off the day by taking a ferry ride over to Liberty Island, the home of the Statue of Liberty. We were able to climb up the pedestal, but unfortunately not all the way to the top. I didn't even realize that people were allowed up to the top of her crown again, but we saw a few people starting the trek up there. Fun fact: I've actually been up to the top before ... But I was only 2 years old. My mom carried me up all those hundreds of stairs! And she still doesn't let me forget it!

After the statue is when things got a little interesting. Not all of us were able to rush through the statue fast enough to get back on the required ferry that would take us to Ellis Island, so the group ended up missing the boat! Ironically enough, this was the name of the ferry:

Which is all too bad, as Ellis has such a huge amount of history for this country! Oh, well. Now we know: next time, allow more time at Liberty Island!

But we did end up with a bit more time for lunch back on the Manhattan side of things, so we found a plaza close to Ground Zero with a bunch of street venders and little restaurants. And pigeons. Lots and lots of pigeons.

After a surprisingly good turkey sandwich on my part, we walked the last couple of blocks to Ground Zero to see the 9/11 Memorial and the One World Trade Center. That's always a chilling and sobering sight to see. We had the added experience of being able to watch a visiting Irish dignitary make a presentation of a wreath along with a compliment of Color Guard (the Irish Soldier kind, not the marching band kind). Although I could barely hear what he was saying, it was still pretty fascinating. By this point, however, people's bladders were starting to feel the strain, as the 9/11 Memorial doesn't have any restrooms for some reason. So we walked down to Wall Street to stop at the Federal Building to use their restrooms ... Only to find that the doors were locked! So, we turned around and just walked back to the buses. This was the only time we willingly said "yes, go ahead and use the bus bathrooms!"

We then drove up the "finger" of Manhattan to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the largest cathedral in the world. This was another addition to the day that we weren't originally planning on, but we really wanted the students to see a gigantic cathedral in all its glory, and St. Patrick's was under heavy scaffolding and renovation when we went to see it. But wow, am I glad we did go see it! I had never been in by here before, and it definitely takes your breath away!

Then we were off to pizza at John's Pizzeria where we were able to stuff our faces with all sorts of delicious pizza and desert (and salad!). We then rolled ourselves down a couple of blocks of Time Square to the theater were we saw Newsies! Now, I'm a huge Broadway nerd, so I already knew that this show was going to be amazing ... And it was still even better than I was anticipating! The show was ridiculously high-energy, the singing was fantastic, and the dancing was just crazy (in a good way). The show had a cast of probably 90% men, so it was great for our guys to see that other guys CAN sing and dance, and it's pretty awesome when they do.

And that was Saturday! Tomorrow, we have the USS Intrepid Museum and the Museum of Natural History, followed by Dallas BBQ and then the world-famous Vienna Philharmonic! 

I leave you with some pictures of our adventures today.

Waiting in line for the Liberty Island Ferry:

Manhattan skyline in the distance:

Statue!

Eating vender food for lunch

At St. John's the Divine

Ready for the pizza,

Mr. Puffett tried valiantly to not be in this picture

Day 3

Great news! I was able to procure a wireless password from the front desk by telling them that I was won of the leaders of a group of students all the way from Iowa, and I write a blog every night letting their family and friends know what they are up to. The front desk guy happily gave me a password. All is right in the world!

So today was a pretty awesome day!

We started out with a delicious catered buffet for breakfast, then hopped back on to our buses for a guided tour of Manhattan. The tour guide we had on the Green Bus (Eugene) was pretty awesome. He was incredibly knowledgable about New York, and had some great stories to boot. We drove all over Manhattan, visiting the different areas of the city. It's amazing how much variety there is! I know it sounds kind of silly to say, but there is a huge disparity between the rich and the poor, and everywhere in between. We drove past the places where the rich and the famous dwell and shop, and then locations where "normal" people live. Eugene showed us the club where Lady Gaga was discovered, and mentioned a pretty mind-blowing fact: if you were to spend $1 a second since Moses parted the Red Sea, then you would have spent the wealth of the Rockefeller's (adjusted for inflation). Craziness! But, when you consider that even a studio apartment downtown can go for $2000 a month, that kind of money seems more necessary to make it in Manhattan!

On the tour we also got out and took a brisk walk through Central Park, and we also stopped at Grand Central Station for what Eugene called "Tea and a Pee." No one got tea (more like coffee), but the phrase still made me laugh, and I am going to try to integrate it into my vernacular!

After our bus tour, we got let off at the famous Rockefeller Plaza for lunch. We didn't get to to into Rockefeller Center, unfortunately, as the NBC Studios tour had to be closed down, and we went up the Empire State Building as our super-tall observation deck. But we got to explore a little bit (in our chaperone groups, of course!) before ending up at Radio City Music Hall. This building houses the largest theater in the world, and one of only four theaters in the world where the stage can be raised, lowered, or rotated (in four different sections, no less) while performers are on it. The auditorium itself seats over 5000 people, which is a pretty awesome sight. Even more awesome was the fact that the Rockettes were actually rehearsing while we were there! Our tour guide let us sit in on their rehearsal for a bit. Pretty  nifty hearing the directors giving them instructions and stuff, just like in a high school production!

Once we got our photos taken with an actual Rockette, we went off to explore 5th avenue and Times Square for a bit; one group even had a sighting of James Franco shopping in the Godiva Chocolate store! Then, we hopped back on the bus and headed to Pier 61 on the Hudson River for our dinner cruise. The cruise itself was a blast! The dinner as delicious, and then we were allowed to take in the magnificent sights while listening to the very best that pop music has to offer played loudly from every speaker in the boat. And a very random coincidence: we shared the boat with Johnston High School. Yes, the Johnston High School that is right down the road from Saydel. We travel a thousand miles from home, and spend the evening with 150 other people that all live within 30 miles of us.

After we docked, we piled back into the buses, and are now crashing back in our beds, ready for tomorrow's adventures! And what do those adventures entail? The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the 9/11 Site, St. John's Cathedral, a group dinner at John's Pizzeria, and then NEWSIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry, I'm a little excited for that. I'm also excited for the fact that it's supposed to be in the mid-50's. Finally, some warmer weather!

I leave you now with a collection of pictures from our trip thus far! Until tomorrow, blog-readers!

Empire State Building Elevator Selfie:

On top of the Empire State Building. A little cold and windy, but what a view!

Green Bus at Central Park:

Starbucks: the universal symbol of "I'm sleep-deprived":

We found a little bit of tropical paradise:

In line for Radio City Music Hall:

I got nothing:

Excited to Dance the Night away!

A couple of our FIERCE chaperones:

The entire Saydel Group on the cruise:

Day 2

So I have come to the realization that this hotel does not have free WiFi. So,  I am writing this post on my phone, just like yesterday's. I am hoping another solution will present itself, because I still can't get photos uploaded using the mobile app. And even if I could, most of the pictures are on my camera, not my cell phone.

But enough of my first world probs, let's talk about our trip!

Today was a day full of adventures! It all started at around 3 in the morning. I was tossing and turning when it finally dawned on me that I was freezing cold! It turns out the previous bus driver had turned the heat off by closing a valve under the bus, since these buses don't have very precise climate control. So instead of closing the valve a little bit to cool it off, he closed it all the way. Needless to say, it definitely cooled us off! One we got that fixed, we were back on the road again and I actually was getting some sleep! But I was awoken from a beautiful night's sleep by the bus feeling like it was about to shake itself apart. It turns out, the interstate was closed due to a very bad accident!  Ohio had gotten a very bad snow storm earlier in the day. So, we were forced onto some back roads that were not very well maintained. Eventually we got back onto a highway, but then we ran into an accident that caused us to sit at a standstill for around an hour! On the plus side, that was an hour of sleep where we weren't moving around!

We eventually got back on to better roads and it was smooth sailing all the way to our hotel! It really is a very nice hotel, and I wish you could see some pictures of it! As soon as we pulled into the hotel, we were fed a delicious supper of pizza and salad and then we jumped back on to the bus and rolled into the city! Our first New York adventure took place at the Empire State Building!

Aside from it being rather cold, it was a beautiful night to sight see! the view from the top of the Empire State Building was stunning, and we got a lot of great pictures! It was fun to see the kids just look out at this almost endless sea of buildings. It makes Des Moines looks like a little village.  after we took in the sites we stopped by the gift shop, & I picked up a new band mascot! Hopefully you all will be able to see pictures of it at some point, because it is pretty adorable.

And that was today! Tomorrow we really get an introduction to New York with our guide city tour.  Following that will be a tour of Radio City Music Hall, one of the largest auditoriums in the world, and then some time in Times Square. After that, we will hop ON A BOAT for a dinner cruise. Should be a great day!

That's all for now. Until tomorrow!

First night!

This will be a quick post, as I'm doing this update on my phone.

We have successfully reached the Chicago area! At 1130 we made the bus driver exchange, and now the kiddies are all tucked in and ready for a wonderful night of wonderful, restful, fantastic bus sleep.

I am, of course, being sarcastic. Sleeping on a bus is the worst.

But the first five hours have been smooth sailing so far! The Green Bus (or, as I like to call it, the good bus) started out the trip with a rousing rendition of happy birthday to yours truly. It was then that I realized that there was a lot of band kids on the bus, not choir kids. We then watched Monsters Inc., and spent the rest of the time socializing. The Gold bus managed to squeeze in two movies before our pre-bedtime stop.

And of course, being as this is a gaggle of high schoolers, some hijinks ensued, as evidenced in the below photos.

Okay, the mobile app is being weird. I don't know if the photos will be uploaded or not. If it doesn't work, you'll see them tomorrow.

Otherwise, it has been a thankfully non dramatic bus ride so far! Now, I just need to find some way to get comfortable...

Here we go!

Buses are packed... Kids (and chaperones) are pumped, and we're off!

Soon ...

Welcome to the blog that will keep each and every one of you up-to-date on the Saydel Band & Choir's trip to New York City!

Every 4 years, the Saydel High School Music Department takes its members on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to expose the students to The Arts outside of Iowa, reward all of their hard work, and celebrate the opportunity to band together as band- and choir-mates.

Tune in each night, starting on Wednesday March 12, for updates and photos from the trip. So even though you may not be able to be with the Band and Choir in person, you can be with us in spirit!