Gladstone East Coast Trip 2010

Last Day!

ghsect2010 — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 04:19:15 +0000

We got to see Harvard today too, the picture with everybody touching the statue is because if you touch his left shoe you’re supposed to have good luck on exams. Why not, couldn’t hurt. We also got to shop in the book store. Had lunch in that area and also had about three hours to shop wherever. We could take the subway back to Quincy Market or go back to the hotel, as long as we were in groups. We’ve become experts at riding the subway though. It’s actually pretty fun.

Then we were getting ready for dinner. I know it seems like not a lot happened but that tour went from 9 until about 1 so we were listening to Richard talk all morning. Dinner was fancy tonight but I heard a lot of complaints about the food. Somebody’s burger looked raw, the food in general wasn’t very good, etc. Just from certain people though. Now the boys are a whole different story. They went ALL OUT. Five guys. Almost 300 dollars between them! Taylor ate a whole lobster, a steak, parts of other dishes the girls were done with (all the guys did that though) and had a brownie sundae on top. WHERE DID IT ALL GO?? They all were like a pack of rabid wild hyenas! Once a girl was finished with what she was eating they’d put it in front of the guys, BAM gone in a few seconds. Not joking.

We were going to do Karaoke tonight but our hotel charges ten bucks a head just to be in there. Lame. But we did sign each others posters and we had to say one nice thing about each other from the trip. It was a good way to end the day. Along with ice cream and cookies.

Well tonight’s the last night. We’re all hoping and praying we don’t get any delays tomorrow, a lot of us are ready for home. To all the faithfuls who kept up with this blog all the way through, awesome job! Things I could have done better and anymore comments are appreciated especially when I come back to write my essay for the project. This trip has been amazing all around, everyone had their favorite parts and favorite cities and I know you guys will love hearing all about them when they get home. After we get out of our coma of course. Saturday is coma day for everybody to catch up on the Z’s. Please do not disturb. Good night for one last time from Boston, and last time on the ECT. See you all tomorrow!

~Allyson

Our rooms got all turned topsy turvey today for our last night. Our reservations got screwed up so we all got split into different rooms. One room has about 12 girls (they volunteered don’t worry) and they’re having a sleepover. They’ll be peaches on the plane since they plan on not sleeping. Lauren, Juli and Hannah moved into our room and everyone else was split up in other rooms. Definitely cray cray.

We had Richard again today for our tour to Lexington and Concord, the places important in the Revolutionary war. I’ll say this, it was interesting but I’ve heard from at least a few kids that he talks a lot. We ARE teenagers so he probably should have cut some things a little shorter for our attention spans. I took more random pictures of us listening to him again today.

Day 13

ghsect2010 — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 22:07:12 +0000

(I reposted this one because the stupid picture galleries always screw up my posts and mix up paragraphs. Sorry if that was confusing)

I’m really surprised my legs don’t hurt right now. I hope they don’t hurt in the morning. We did SO much walking today. Along with walking up 291 steps to the top of Bunker Hill (big monument, reminds me of the Washington Monument) and then 291 steps back down. Definitely a full workout. I took really random pictures today so keep an eye out for those. All in all though, it was a really good day.

We started our morning with a continental breakfast, yay! We haven’t had that since our very first morning and it’s always nice when you don’t have to pay for food. Then, new experience! We got to take the subway. Actually, here it’s called “The T”. Strange, I know. I took random photos of us waiting for the subway. After we got off we met Richard, our tour guide, who was really…expressive. He would get so into telling us stories that he would shout and sometimes get in peoples faces but he was funny too. We get him tomorrow for our other tour too! Anywho, he led us through some Boston history, the nearby cemetery where Sam Adams and Paul Revere’s graves were. Along with Ben Franklin’s parents. Walked some more and saw some old parts of Boston. More random pictures of us kind of listening to Richard talk. I know some of us really look like we’re paying attention.

Walked more. Went into the Old North Church where Paul Revere made his ride too to warn that the British were coming. Hang lanterns “one if by land, two if by sea”, ring a bell? Yeah we were there. Walked more, over a bridge and up a hill. Over the river and through the woods…Sorry made me think of the song. ANYWAY. We finally made it to Bunker Hill (big tall statue monument in pictures). Oh and side note, while we’re doing all this walking it is cold because the wind is blowing so hard hats and hoods were getting blown off. We weren’t very happy campers until we actually started moving more and warming up, which wasn’t until Bunker Hill. So yeah, we had the choice to walk up this very large monument. Sure why not, we’re here might as well. THEN he mentions the 291 steps to get to the top just as a few of us are about to start. Oh. Joy. That was ridiculous. Awesome view from the top but wow was it a workout getting there. And we thought the 156 steps to the pedestal of the statue of liberty was a workout. Woo!

Once everyone made their way down from the top we walked some more to the ferry that would take us to Quincy Market for lunch. We were there earlier today and yesterday too. After lunch we got on the subway again to go back to the area our hotel is in because we’re right across from Fenway Park. I tell ya though, I’ve never seen bigger sports fans, let alone Red Sox fans, than Hannah and Bryan. Die hard Red Sox fans right there. Hannah was freaking out waiting to go into the stadium. More random pictures of us walking up the ramp to get into the stadium. We sat in the press box up at the top, the green wall behind left field called “The Monsta” (Monster but in a Boston accent the R is silent, we’re learning good things here!) and also got to sit in the oldest seats in baseball history. Wooden seats from 1934 I think he said. “He” being our guide Steve. I think his name was Steve. Kelley thinks so too. He was hilarious. Telling jokes and just an all around great guy to be around. Oh yeah, story behind one of the pictures. There’s a picture of seats in the stadium. Seats fill the entire photo…find it? Now look for the red seat. See it? That seat marked where the longest home run was hit in that stadium. Guess what? It hit a Yankee fan in the head. No joke, ironic, yeah? After Fenway, we had four hours to ourselves. A group of people took the subway back to Quincy Market, some stayed at the hotel and some stayed at shops around the hotel. Just chill time to do whatever.

Then at 7:15 we headed out to Blue Man Group! A lot of us didn’t really know what to expect but it turned out to be really cool. We wore ponchos since we were in the first, second and third rows, apparently we were going to get stuff on us. Most of us didn’t actually but it was still awesome and funny. We got pictures with some of them afterward and the girls got kisses if we wanted. Despite some of the guys wanting kisses the blue guys just finger painted kisses on their cheeks. Haha suckers. Bryan got two blue circles for some reason. Oh and we had toilet paper headbands because we had like a toilet paper…rave. I think that fits. There were strobe lights and rolls upon rolls of toilet paper being rolled out on top of us. Good stuff.Now we’re back home! Hotel home. Tomorrow’s our last full day and will be my last day reporting to you guys since Friday we’ll be at home at night. From what I’ve heard, most of us are ready for home. Just not for school. Good night from Boston, Mass! (put Boston accent on that, it’ll make it sound cooler when you read it)

~Allyson

Day 13 Photos

ghsect2010 — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 03:52:53 +0000

Day 12

ghsect2010 — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 02:55:31 +0000

Alright I’m gonna try and do this quick before the internet kicks me off.

…Pressure! I can’t remember what we did this morning! …OH YEAH! We got up early top hop on the bus and drive. For like three hours. Nap time, yay! We stopped at a Stop and Shop grocery store to buy whatever snacks and stuff for lunch. We ate our lunch on the bus and then drove a little ways more to Newport, Rhode Island. We got a bus tour from this guy who talked about people who lived in the houses and some history about the town. There’s a lot of colonial houses that have been restored, I didn’t get many pictures of those though. We had our stop at the Atlantic ocean and we got to go touch it so we can say that we were in the Atlantic ocean. I even took some back in my shoe as a souvenir.

Continuing on our tour, we got to see a ton of mansions. Some belonging to presidents or influential people. One of the was the mansion where most of The Great Gatsby was filmed, for any parents who have or had juniors taking advanced junior English. Then tour was over and we continued driving to Boston. I took some pictures of people on the bus just because.

We watched part of National Treasure 2 on the way to Boston and once we got to the hotel, we changed and went to dinner at Hard Rock Café. Strangely it was already paid for so we had a set menu we could choose from. We had a dance party on the stage at Hard Rock…that was sure interesting haha. Then we had a little bit of time to kill before our play so we went across the street to some little shops for a while.

Our play tonight was Shear Madness. Basically a whole show based on improv and audience imput. It was so cool. Except the fact there were probably over 50 middle school students there and we were about to commit our own murder on a bunch of them. They were so immature and loud and annoying, we were honestly not sure if the show was even appropriate for them but whatever, over it. It was still a good show, really funny.

And now we’re back in the hotel! The rooms are pretty nice too, my group we get our own beds! Yes! Now about the stroke thing. So we get back in and Miranda and I pass Kelley going in and we take the elevator first, thinking she’s still downstairs. Walking, walking down the hall. Doesn’t help we’ve heard this place is haunted but so I have the key and open the door first, walk in and SOMETHING jumps like a foot in front of me and screams in my face so I scream bloody murder, causing Miranda to scream and we almost peed our pants as Kelley just starts laughing. I start laughing and partially crying because I realized how funny it was and I just kind of collapsed on the floor in laughter and tears. I’m a good sport, I high-fived her. Apparently there’s another elevator to take that’s closer to our room. Go figure. So yeah sorry for the quickness tonight but we honestly were just on a bus all day. So goodnight from Boston! Home of the Red Sox! (for all the fans out there)

~Allyson

Day 12 Photos

ghsect2010 — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 02:54:21 +0000

Update

ghsect2010 — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 02:24:55 +0000

I think I just had a stroke. I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared in my life thank you SO MUCH KELLEY VAN HOOK! I hope people on our floor aren’t wondering why people are screaming bloody murder, don’t worry that’s just me! And Miranda but she screamed because I screamed so still my fault. I’ll tell you about this later if you’re curious.

SO the REAL reason for this is this stupid hotel says I get 90 minutes for free before I have to pay so I’m gonna try and get stuff up quick if I can’t for the rest of the time blame the hotel. Yeah I’m gonna start getting pictures now!…As soon as my heart starts working again.

Day 11

ghsect2010 — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 03:30:21 +0000

Next we got back on the ferry that took us to Ellis Island for a half hour. Looked around the museum and we could go out and look at the panels of names to find your relatives if they immigrated back then. Quick thing then back on the ferry to shore. We had one hour to do whatever before meeting at Trinity Church to go to HSSL (Mr. Burnce’s old high school).

The high school was in Brooklyn and it was funny because as we got closer people were like …There ain’t no more white people out here, it was totally true but funny. Meeting the students was probably everyone’s favorite part today, the kids were so cool and we had a lot of fun. We did ice breaker activities and we got in groups to talk about our schools and lives. Then we had a dance party yeeaaahhhh. I had video too! But it won’t let me upload video for some reason, I can’t find it, it’s weird. Just wait until you talk to your kids, they’ll tell you how awesome these students were. There were so many difference between our schools too, they have a lot of violence like fights everyday and they have to go through metal detectors everyday. They were a cool bunch of kids though I’m really glad we got to do that thanks to momma Burnce.

Now what was for dinner tonight? Oh right, CHEESECAKE! We had a late lunch and we HAD to have some cheesecake while we were in NY so we stopped at this place called Junior’s and we all ordered some sort of cheesecake or cake it was SOOO good.

So then we had a choice. We could stay at the hotel or go out to Times Square for one last hurrah for about an hour and a half. Most of us went out and boy that was not good. All of us were drenched it was pouring down rain. We stepped in a few lakes while crossing streets and the raindrops were the size of quarters. It was wet, but we did do a little bit of shopping despite the wetness.

And that was our last night in New York. Only a few days left of our trip and we get to spend them in Boston, hopefully it’s just as fun as New York has been. Goodnight for one last time from the city that never sleeps!

~Allyson

P.S There was thunder and lightning just a second ago. Sweeeeet!

P.P.S Anyone notice how good I’m doing with getting the pictures ON the website? Huh? Huh? Yeah.

Waking up early is not fun. Just letting you all know in case you never figured that out. We all were so exhausted today, whether it was the boat rides or just waking up early in general but we were wiped out.

So we got up super early to go stand out in the cold to get on the ferry to take us to Liberty Island. We had time so we all made a Starbucks run, woo! And there were these little holes in the wall that we sat in to escape the rain for a bit. THEN we got to stand in line in the rain for a half hour. Fun. Go through security to get on the boat and then boat trip to Liberty Island. We got to see the big lady herself and after more security, we walked up 156 steps to the top of the pedestal, we could see up inside her too (that sounds really awkward but it’s true, there’s a picture to prove it). I swear we’ve been through so many security checks on this trip, we have the routine down.

Day 10

ghsect2010 — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 04:07:27 +0000

We saw someone famous today! …Sort of. Not movie star famous but she’s still pretty important. Come on, how would YOU react if you saw MRS. OBAMA?? But that story’s later we need to start from the beginning, as usual. We walked through Central Park today, which is huge if you didn’t know. Luckily we didn’t walk through the whole thing but we did see a giant ice skating rink with a competition going on, there was a huge marathon going on too for I don’t know what, Balto’s statue! Seeing Balto made me sooo happy, I totally forgot he was in Central Park. And then the Alice in Wonderland statue/memorial. We took a group, senior, junior and chaperone photo.

Once we were out of Central Park we got time to split up again and shop. 98% of the girls went shopping at H&M. The boys along with me, Kelley and Miranda went to Yankee stadium just for the heck of it. We only got to see the outside because we didn’t have a tour but it was something to do. After that we wandered around Times Square for a bit and found some lunch.

We got to see West Side Story this afternoon and I thought it was pretty good. Momma Olds didn’t like it, others thought it was okay so it was kind of an average show. One of the main guys was cute though and I believe Lauren and Hannah got a picture with him so keep an eye out for a picture of him from them. After West Side Story we went back for a quick change of clothes and then went out by the Empire State Building to find dinner in that area before heading up to the top.

You’ll notice that a few girls wanted a photo shoot while we were waiting for the elevator so…Yeah those are pretty random and kind of hilarious. The view from the top was amazing, especially since we were up there at night. My camera fails so much at taking pictures at night but I got some good ones on my phone so I might send those to myself later on. I did get a couple decent ones on the camera.

So now, here’s the scoop. Some of our group heard from some of the security people that the first lady was coming to the Empire State Building and we got really excited. Was it true? We didn’t know. Until they started clearing us out of one area of the top observatory deck and then someone said a dignitary was coming up and no one was going to be able to go down for about 20-25 minutes. Jessica got a quick video of Mrs. Obama but you can only see her silhouette but they saw her with their own eyes so she was there! How awesome is that? Once we finally got down from the building we walked to Times Square and then we see these cop cars and a creeper van pull up. And these cops have some serious ammunition, plus the creeper van was the same one outside the Empire State Building. We figured we’d sit and wait, Michelle HAD to be close. Sure enough some ten minutes later her whole parade of cop cars, dark vehicles and SUVs drive by full of secret service. It was so cool! So we saw her TWICE. Apparently she was there to see a show. After that excitement there was little less than an hour to shop in Times Square and then we headed back to the bus and back to the hotel. A few of us saw these awesome street dancers dancing too so that video is there for ya if you’re curious.

Wake up at 6am tomorrow. Boooo. Going to the Statue of Liberty though so I GUESS it’s worth it. Maybe. We’ll see how cranky I am in the morning. Farewell!

~Allyson

Day 9

ghsect2010 — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 04:51:53 +0000

Alright. I’m going to remain calm and get through the whole day before I rant and rave about tonight. Because tonight was probably the highlight of everyone’s trip, and if you haven’t already heard about it…Oh you’re in for a story.

So this morning we had an acting class and it was called like Backstage on Broadway or something like that. We basically had an hour with this girl who taught acting classes at NYU and we did some improvisations that were really funny to watch. Person #1 went out and did something random, the next person in the other line would come out and say “ (person’s name) what are you doing?” and person #1 would say something totally different than what they were doing and the person #2 would have to do what they said. It was fun. Then we did frozen scenes to show status so we got to make up random scenes and that was cool too. Best part though, this guy walks in and sits down and we come to find out he’s in The Lion King! Who you may ask? SIMBA! So we got to talk to him and ask him questions, he was so nice. Of course afterward the girls were appreciating his looks too. We’ve been doing our dance parties and we wanted to do one with Simba of course but we didn’t have time. So Dashaun says we can come back after the show and have our dance party. We were freaking out. We didn’t know if he would actually follow through or not so it was a ton of suspense and excitement.

After meeting the king of lions we got time to shop and get lunch in Chinatown and Little Italy. Some of us got a photo with NY’s finest. The girls went purse shopping/bargaining and we got our NY souvenirs, all that good stuff.

Our group met up again and we walked to Trinity Church…Well we were supposed to, we actually ended up at St. Paul’s church. Close enough. Ground Zero was only a block away and we went into a small store dedicated to the new memorial that’s being built. There was a scale model and everything. A few blocks down and over was one of the fire departments that lost men during 9/11 and there was a big tribute for them.

We were supposed to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge today but we were short on time so anyone who wanted could walk out a little ways and come back but the tired ones stayed behind on the bus. Shopping takes a lot out of you.

When we finally got back to the hotel we had time to eat dinner and make ourselves beautiful and dashing again for tonight’s show. Little after 7 we were on our way to see The Lion King! …Boo for New York traffic! We got there with ten minutes to spare! But we did get to go through Times Square which was cool to see at night, you could also see it from the theater building. But we made it!

Of course the show was great but now was the awaited moment. Would Simba hold true to his word? Oh, Simba is a man of his word! We waited outside the stage door, some guy came out and we asked where Dashaun was. The guy said he had a Q&A and asked who we were. When we told him he was like oh wait I think the Q&A is with you guys, I’ll go get him. We were screaming. No joke we were serious fan girls. When he finally came out I think we destroyed his ear drums. We got pictures and autographs and we got our dance party with him! Oh my gosh it was so amazing! Make sure everyone goes to the film festival to see all our dance parties! Everyone was on an adrenaline rush right after that. I called my mom and I don’t think she could understand me because I was squealing and talking a mile a minute. Kaitlyn was hilarious she was in love with Simba. The autograph on the back of her shirt was probably the best moment of her life haha, we all had a really awesome time.

Tomorrow is West Side Story, don’t even know what that’s about so I hope it’s good! And then climbing (not literally) to the top of the Empire State Building! Good night from Manhattan!

~Allyson

Day 9 Photos

ghsect2010 — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 04:47:57 +0000