Day 9 (New York City)

New York traces its roots to its 1624 founding as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic, and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surrounds came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, the Duke of York. New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the country's largest city since 1790. Many districts and landmarks in New York City have become well known to its approximately 50 million annual visitors, from Times Square to the brightly illuminated streets of the Broadway theater district. Another well-known landmark in NYC is one of the most widely known signs around the world, The Statue of Liberty. The statue greeted millions of immigrants as they came to America by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a globally recognized symbol of the United States and its democracy.

Since New York City is so close to where we live, we can easily travel to the big apple by train and/or car. The first time I went to New York was to see the Rockettes at the Christmas show. It was also my first train ride. Stopping and letting people off and picking up new ones at each stop. The funny thing was when at one stop someone I knew got on. I couldn’t believe it, Katie my music teacher and her husband were also going to New York to see a show. What a small world. Our reason for riding the train to New York was to see the show, but we also wanted to see the big tree at Rockefeller Center. It’s true, the trees put in the center are huge and beautiful full of lights. I remember when we saw the Christmas special at Radio City Music Hall; the most interesting part of the show was when a live camel pooped right on the stage in front of these two people. In less than 5 minutes afterwards the people got up and left complaining.

Throughout my 14 years I have visited New York Many times. Our main reason for going to New York City is to see live performances on Broadway. My little sister Molly took her first trip to New York when she was only 1 ½, we went on Easter Sunday to see Mary Poppins. Molly was no problem during the show. As long as her snack bag was full she was quite. The scary part was when we watched the news that night at home and saw that there was a shooting in front of the theater we were in not 4 hours earlier. You never know what is going to happen so always be aware of your surroundings. Stay alert but mind your business.

Like I said, I’ve gone to New York to see a couple of Broadway shows. My most favorite show was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang the Musical. It was based off of one of my favorite classic movies. The ending of the show blew me away when chitty takes off from the stage and flies over the crowd. The car was actually above my head. It was amazing.

New York City is known as the Big Apple; the city that never sleeps by people around the world. Great talent, great architecture and great shopping. I’ve come to find out it also has great history in its role in forming the United States. That’s interesting to me. I enjoy learning about History of any kind.