Wednesday: Free Day

A free day should be an easy day right?

Not necessarily; not when you're leading 13 teenagers through New York City for twelve hours.

We left NYSUM at 9:30 on subway into lower Manhattan. We got off, closest to the UN building, which was our first stop. (It was raining when we left but it soon stopped and eventually the clouds gave way to sunshine by the end of the day.) We only had a very short tour of the UN, but it was still worthwhile to a get a sense of the place. Afterwards we walked further into the city, stopping for lunch. We then stopped in at St. Patrick's Cathedral, where there was a service going on, so we could only view this church from the back. But it was an impressive cathedral.
Then we went to the Rockefeller Center, watching some figure skating on the outdoor rink, visiting a Lego store and the NBC store. From there we walked to Times Square and just absorbed that center of massive activity. Stopped at Tim Horton's for break and the M&M store (3 floors of candy!). We proceeded down to the Empire State Building. Those who did not want to go up it, went shopping at Macy's. I went up to the 86th observatory and then the 102th level. The view was just incredible and well worth the money. We rejoined together and went to a restaurant for supper (Jimmy's). By this time it was dark and we walked to Times Square, with all of its lights. (It almost felt like daylight.) A TV personality interviewed a few members of the group, for his show. (It was for a cable TV show). Back to the subway and to NYSUM by 9:30pm. A full day of activities.