NYC ...

            Today was much more hectic than yesterday. It was the busiest day of the Freedom Tour. First we went on a walking tour of NYC, and went to Little Italy and Chinatown. After that we had lunch on the bus and went to the Apollo Theatre, which was very fun. After Apollo Theater, we went to Ground Zero, which was quite an amazing thing to see.

            On our walking tour we had a guide that took us around NYC, like Chinatown and Little Italy. Chinatown was really cool and different, with different kinds of buildings and shops. There were lots of merchants on the streets, some sold tee-shirts and others, food. The signs that were written in Chinese was really cool to see as well.

            At the Apollo theatre, we met up with the owner. He was really funny and nice, and he had a few of us come up on stage and sing, dance, or put on some other kind of act. I went up and sang with my friend Maddy, which was really fun and exciting to do. Before anyone did there act, they had to go over the a tree stump that was on a stand and rub it, for good luck. It was a really fun thing to do. After the few of us that did an act on stage, we got to go backstage and see the wall were all the famous people that have done an act there for the past twenty five years signed, and we got to go see the dressing rooms upstairs. It was really fun getting to stand on a world famous stage and sing and do acts.

            Ground Zero was really cool, but extremely sad and touching. There was a place that we got to write down what we thought about 9/11. After we got that chance, we walked to the actual sight. We had to go through security, like an airport. After we finally got through security, we got to stand at the reflecting pools where the buildings once were. There were stone slabs all around the two pools with the names of people that helped and died. There were lots of names. That was probably the most sad thing of the day.

            After Ground Zero, we went to Little Italy and ate dinner. The Italian food was amazing. We got to explore bits of Little Italy, seeing all the different little shops and restaurants.  After dinner, we went back on the busses and drove through Times Square, all lit up. It was beautiful, with lots of gigantic signs advertising stores, and all the stores had there signs lit up and flashing. It was extremely beautiful, and was quite the way to end the day.

~Savannah