Big Trip 2013 - Day 4 - last full day in NY

As I type this there are a ton of teens in a small hotel pool in Paramus, NJ - enjoying some well deserved time off! (Well, ok, the pool closes in 30 minutes and they'll be 'taped' in their rooms soon after, but at least they got some pool time in).

Day 4 was chock full - we got a whopping 6 hours of sleep and after a simple carb-loaded breakfast at the Courtyard, we hopped on the bus and went down near the meat packing district to Carroll Studios. Along the way we were treated to more fantastic tour guiding by Joanne. We met conductor Paul Haas who worked with our groups (Combined and then Chamber) for over an hour an half. Might have had more time with him, but we left the cello and bass bows on the bus and it took about a half an hour to get the bus back. Paul has a very sarcastic wit about him and is a masterful musician. He helped improved the musicality of both groups! He is a visionary director - he uses music as an medium for doing art installations. To get more of an idea about what that looks like, check out his group Sympho - www.symphoconcerts.com.

After the Paul Haas clinic we were treated to a tour of Downtown, Wall Street, and Battery Park. The World Trade Center (building #7 which up until recently was called the Freedom Tower) is almost done being constructed. We even got to swing by the 9/11 memorial pools - very powerful visuals! Here's some pictures of the Tower from far and close. And the middle picture is rather special - that is actually the top of the tower - it'll be placed on top of the 1776 feet - it's the top spire!!!! They were working on it at street level (you can kind of see people inside it working on it) and our bus stopped right next to it!!!!

After that tour it was time for a fun boat ride. The NY River Taxi company does a 1 hour NY Harbor tour that included spectacular views of the skyline, Ellis Island, and Lady Liberty. The tour guide J.P. was fantastic (he told us all sorts of jokes, stories, and kept us very entertained!). Here's a little of what we learned. The East River isn't actually a river - it's an estuary of the Atlantic and it switches direction with the tides. His wife's name is Nicole and she works at a cool downtown restaurant. NY is made up of 5 boroughs. And so much more. A great time was had by all!

After a quick lunch we had to dash off to Lincoln Center - all the way back uptown. The Paul Taylor Dance company is one of the pioneers of contemporary modern dance. Known to stretch audiences sense of what dance is, we were treated to some unbelievable choreography and dancing. Ask the kids - some loved it, some didn't (many slept through the first number... they were really tired and it was soft!). For me personally, it was a cultural highlight. Gorgeous dancing set perfectly to beautiful music. At the end, because it was the end of their season, Mr Taylor came out on to the stage himself - he is in his 90's and now we can all say that in our lifetime we saw him! Here's a picture of us outside of the David Koch theater.

Dinner was at the Juilliard Cafe - the cafeteria where the students themselves eat. Nothing too exciting to report there, other than usually you have to be accepted into Juilliard to eat there (they only accept 7% of the auditionees). After dinner we drove down 5th avenue - wow - some shopping there!!! Then we were dropped off at Rockefeller Center. We went up to the Top of the Rock. Crowded, but so amazing- beautiful skyline - perfect weather - awesome views:

Then it was time for one last Times Square shopping trip - a slight less crowded than last night because the theaters were "dark" (meaning, not performing). And now we're back... swimming (some lovely water ballet going on down here)

Tomorrow we're off to Juilliard and Christope Landon's Rare Violins - then Chinatown. It's been a great trip so far!!!