I went to New York last winter with the band. The day started out taking off in a cool bus at 8 p.m. and bringing everything we loaded to the band room. We took everything to the band room to have everything checked to make sure we didn’t have any drugs or alcohol. Once I didn’t have any of that, my friends and I strolled our own suitcases to outside of the junior high doors and set our suitcases down. Then we waited a good twenty minutes to wait till the bus arrived to the school. Once the bus pulled in, we put all the band instruments underneath the bus first and then all the suitcases. Once we did all that, we hustled on the bus, my friends and I moved to the back because that’s where we thought the outlets would be, and we wanted to have outlets first. While we were on the bus I decided to watch a few movies because it was a ten to twelve hour bus ride.

Fast-forwarding time, we finally made it to New York City. When we pulled up, it was 8 a.m. and beautiful. First movement we wandered inside the hotel and waited till our band director checked us in. Once we realized we were checked in, we went upstairs, and the boys went to the boys’ room to shower and so did the girls. Once we both showered, we went right back on the bus and met our tour guide for the time that we were there.

Our first adventure involved a ferry ride: We roamed to the boat; it was a pretty long walk from the hotel. It was freezing cold with all the rustling wind; I wore a coat with a hat and gloves. Once we received access on that boat, we went to Ellis Island. At Ellis Island we rode around and saw some cool sights. We saw the Wall of Honor and the Flag of Faces. Then we left and went back to the boat and went to Liberty Island, the island that has the Statue of Liberty. At Liberty Island we explored first. There were some pigeons, and one of the band members decided to throw some bread pieces at the pigeons, and the pigeons decided to eat then run away. Twenty minutes later we received access to walk up the Statue of Liberty. To actually tour up the Statue of Liberty, we put all the bags and other items away to get inside. Once we hustled inside, we had to go through security. We went inside to climb all the stairs up to the Statue of Liberty. Once we started up the stairs, we decided to start really fast, but that didn’t work out because all of our calves were dead. By the time we were at the top, all of us were out of breath, and we almost collapsed on the ground because of how tired we were. After we hiked up, we looked out over New York City and saw the entire city-- I saw the entire city. Once we were done looking, we all took a group picture with the whole band. After the picture we went downstairs to a museum that explained how they built the Statue of Liberty and who did it. We learned it took nine years to build the Statue of Liberty.  We also learned multiple different facts about how and who built the Statue of Liberty.

After we went to the museum, we went back on the ferry and went to Times Square with each of our own groups. We first ate at Bubba Gump’s. I liked the food. I ordered the barbequed burger they had. After we ate, walked around Times Square and visited all the stores they offered and saw taxicabs. I bought a few things for my sister and my mom and for myself. I bought myself an; I love NY t-shirt, I bought my sister 2 princess dolls and bought my mom a t-shirt.

My trip overall was pretty fun and very scenic. We had the experience to walk around Times Square and see Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. I loved New York; I loved they had one dollar pizza. I loved the rockets show and how they practice for each show. I loved the boat that the band played on for a concert.