Thursday, June 11. Today was tour day. We boarded a tour bus and had the "down and dirty" tour of NYC. We stopped at Central Park and walked near the John Lennon memorial section of the park. Of course, everyone is morbidly curious as to where exactly he was shot, so we saw the entrance to the Dakota Apartment building as well. We drove through Greenwich Village, Times Square, Chinatown, and Little Italy. We also drove by the Lincoln Center and Julliard. We stopped at the South Street Seaport. Here we had a great view of the Brooklyn Bridge and caught the Staten Island Ferry. Unfortunately, it was a foggy day and the Statue of Liberty was quite foggy. It was still really neat to see her. I just imagined the joy the immigrants felt as they saw her in the harbor after such a long journey over the sea.
We drove by the Empire State building and was only able to jump off the bus long enough to take a photo. Since it was a foggy day, the top of the building was in the clouds. It was still pretty magnificent. We did stop at the Rockefeller Plaza and see where the Today Show was filmed. We stopped at St. Patrick's cathedral and walked around inside for a few minutes. We drove to Wall Street and saw the NY Stock Exchange, the Trinity Church (made famous in National Treasure with Nicolas Cage, saw Ground Zero and St. Paul's Church.
Day 2 was also the first day of rehearsal. I think the kids had forgotten they were in New York to sing and not just sight-see. They were groaning about having to rehearse. They were joined by kids from 4 other children's choirs. The other choirs were the Ko'olauloa Choir of Laie, HI; the Louisville Youth Choir from Louisville, KY; the Northwest Community Music Academy Encore Choir from Crystal Lake, IL; and coincidentally, another choir from Plano, the Children's Chorus of Collin County. The director was Emily Ellsworth. She is a nationally recognized leader in youth chorus circles. She was fantastic. She had an obvious love of music and love for children.
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