Day 5, April 22nd

Today we came slept in about an hour later than normal. Kids were good about being packed and ready to go on time. When Mr.Witt came down (he and Mrs. Warren were the last two on the bus), we, the students and chaperons, gave him the poster from Chicago, autographed by the cast, as a thank you for the crazy amount of work, both prep work and managing this group in the city. Then we thanked our great guide and super-cool bus driver, Ash.



When we came into the city, we came directly to one of my favorite places in the entire world, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.



I took a ton of pictures, which I won't post all of here. There were some great special exhibits going. I wasn't particularly interested in the Europeans on the Islamic World (a new, more accurate and culturally sensitive name or an art fad called Orientalism), and I didn't want to spend much time in the permanent Egypt exhibit, which some folks thoroughly enjoyed. I liked the European gallery, the special Barcelona exhibit, the impressionist exhibit, the hall of Rodin sculpture, and even the American gallery ("Washington crossing the Deleware" is undeniably impressive, much bigger than I remembered).

But the best part was the new Roman and Greek exhibit, which is a part of the permanent collection which, according to a neat lady in the bookshop, has benn in storage for over 50 years. Her theory: the old curator, a curmudgeonly medeivalist, was offended by nudity. There was a bit of that, but far more importantly, there was an immense collection of fabulous works spanning about a thousand years. I found myself staring at helmets worn by soldiars some 2700 years ago, thinking that these were human beings, men not that different from myself, with parents, wives, children, dreams, regrets, and loyalties to nations that may or may not have been as faithful to them as they sent them off to die in those helmets.




It's amazing to think how much has changed on the surface of human civilization, and how little has changed only a bit under the surface.

After the museum the choir members sang on the steps of the Met.









The New Yorkers on the steps were disappointed that the choir only sang a single song, but we were running short on time. As they say, "always leave them wanting more."

Took Queensboro bridge ( the 59th st bridge ) to the airport instead of the tunnel. As you can see, I couldn't get a decent picture from inside the bus:




No major problems at Laguardia or Denver. Home!

Great quote from Jessie Gerdes: "Denver is farther away-er than Chicago."