Louis Pasteur Middle School Washington D.C. Trip

06/19/2019

Last Day on Tour! On our last day in New York we began the day by walking over to Rockefeller plaza and eating at Cucina & Co. After breakfast we saw that the Today show was filming outside so we hustled over to see what they were doing and tried to get on t.v. About half of the kids got through security in time and were able to get filmed behind Al Roker on the plaza! We then walked over to St. Patrick's Cathedral and took a quick walk through one of the largest Catholic cathedrals in the world. From there we let the kids explore the area for a bit allowing them to walk and shop down 5th Ave., to check out Rockefeller plaza where a lot of New York's biggest events take place in and to shop the many stores in the area. Then we walked back to the hotel to gather our belongings and load onto the bus. The bus took us down to the Harbor to board "The Beast" a huge open air speed boat that blasts loud music while speeding out to the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately it started to rain just as we pulled out from the dock. The rain felt like needles hitting our face as we streaked past New Jersey and Lower Manhattan. Even though we got soaked, it was a fun ride and everyone got a great view of Lady Liberty. Once done with our speed boat ride we headed over to Grand Central Station making our last stop in the city to eat lunch in the stations food court. As most of the kids noticed it is beautiful and famous NYC land mark, most remembering it from the movie "Madagascar".
After lunch it was time to head to the airport and get ready to head back to Sacramento. Since we were reunited with our suitcases most of the kids grabbed any dry clothes they could find and changed out of their soaking wet clothes before we went through security, then it was time to wait for our plane. Unfortunately due to poor weather we were delayed about an hour, but we finally got off and the kids were happy to get home and see their families waiting for them at the Sacramento Airport.
As with every year this was another great trip! This group was so much fun to travel with. Thank you to all you parents for allowing me the opportunity to take your children on this once in a lifetime adventure. I hope this sparks their interest to continue to explore and experience what this world has to offer. Many of the kids stepped out of their comfort zones on this trip and challenged themselves to work through and try new things, I am very proud of them. Thank you to Richard Klem our travel guide for most of the trip and Albert our temporary guide in NYC for helping everything run smoothly, their vast knowledge and giving our students & parents a memorable experience. Thank you to Hank our bus driver in DC and from DC to New York for getting us safely from here to there and his positive upbeat attitude throughout the trip. Thank you to Mr. Po***ck for helping chaperone and accompanying me on the trip. Lastly thanks to all the kids for being great travel companions, you will all be missed next year at Pasteur, good luck in high school!

06/19/2019

Rockin out on our ride back from the Statue of Liberty!

06/19/2019

06/18/2019

06/18/2019

Day 5, "Talk about packing it in" Today was our last and only full day in NYC, so we tried to get us much in as we could. The day started off with breakfast at the Hard Rock Cafe on Time Square. After breakfast it was off to our Broadway classroom, where the kids got to learn a song and dance number from a show. We learned a number from Cinderella. We started out by warming up our vocal chords, then learned and sang a song from the show. This was followed by learning the choreography for the dance that went with the song. This is all taught by an actual broadway performer, ours was an understudy from Frozen, the show we say yesterday. We then ended our activity with Q&A with the instructor.
After the Broadway class we took the entire group down into the subway and road the train to lower Manhattan, to shop and walk around China Town and Little Italy. The kids got to bargain with the vendors and see some of life on the Island. From there we walked downtown to eat lunch near ground zero of the World Trade Center. At the end of lunch we had to say good-bye to Richard our tour guide and met our new guide, Albert. Albert took us on a walking tour of downtown Manhattan and the Financial district, stopping places like Wall Street and Battery Park. We ended at the 9/11 museum and memorial and the kids got to spend some time learning about the horrible events of that day. We then walked around the memorial fountains.
Dinner was at the famous Shake Shack. The kids enjoyed the meal and loved the concrete custard/ice cream. After dinner we got to go up to the top of the new World Trade Center 1, the tallest building in NYC. It's over 100 stories high. We spent time at the top taking pictures of the amazing view. Even though it was a lot, and the kids and adults were tired, we had time for one more activity, so Albert lead a majority of the group halfway across the Brooklyn bridge for what was an amazing view of the city at night. The pictures speak for themselves! After that we took another ride on the subway back to Time Square and turned in for the night.

06/17/2019

Day 4-New York City. Today we got up ate breakfast and departed for New York. It was a good opportunity for the kids to get some extra rest, while others watched as we traveled up north. We made a pit stop in Delaware and stopped and ate lunch in New Jersey adding two more states to the list of new locations for most of our young travelers. As we approached Manhattan Island we were treated to a beautiful view of the New York City skyline, even catching a glimpse of Lady Liberty way off in the distance. Since we made good time on the road, we got into town with time to make a quick stop in Central Park. The kids got to walk through the park and see how busy it is on a Sunday afternoon, since most people in the city are not working. Because we were close enough, we walked the dozen blocks to Time Square where our hotel is located. The kids got to see the hustle and bustle of the city and the chaos that is Time Square. Since some of our rooms were not ready, we decided to walk over to the theater to get in line for our matinee showing of Frozen. The kids enjoyed the show, unfortunately we were not allowed to sing along. The nice thing about the location of the show was that it was located right next to the restaurant where we were scheduled to eat dinner, Johns' Pizzeria. This is one of my favorite places to eat in the city, bring out a huge variety of delicious pizzas and end the meal with a plate of fresh cookies and cannolis. After dinner we walked back to Time Square and took our professional group photo, once that was done we were finally able to check into our rooms. We then went back down to Time Square to take in the sights and shop a little but until it was time to return and get ready for bed.

06/16/2019

On our way to NYC!