Well, this seems to be the normal time for my travels. This clock at my house shows a.m. That's when I got up and drove Dimas to my parent's house and then off to the Waterloo Regional Airport!
The airport was pretty empty around 6:00am, but it soon filled up and we boarded the plane. This picture was taken from inside the plane, but do you see the far building in the background? You and the 4th graders will be visiting there next MAY!
The airport was pretty empty around 6:00am, but it soon filled up and we boarded the plane. This picture was taken from inside the plane, but do you see the far building in the background? You and the 4th graders will be visiting there next MAY!
The flight to Chicago was short. It only took 40 minutes to fly there! Find Chicago on the map and figure out where I likely was 20 minutes into my flight. In Chicago, I had to switch planes and walk a little ways, but not too far. Here's the board you have to look at to see which gate you need to get to.
I met up with some other MEMTA (Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy) members. They flew in from other states. We flew to Newark, New Jersey and waited for our van to take us to the Hyatt Regency Hotel on the Hudson. I got there and settled in at about 2:00pm. Here are a few views from my room. Yes, when you look straight down, you see water!
Here it is on the outside. It's so cool! Can you see the Hudson River? I had about a half hour to spare, so I walked around the boardwalk.
I met Kevin, a fourth grade teacher from Wisconsin, and he had never been to New York City before, so I offered to take him there before our 5:00 party. We took this water taxi across the river. It costs the same as a subway ride.
We went to the 9/11 Memorial pools and saw the Survivor Tree.
We also walked to Battery Park and saw the Statue of Liberty from a distance and then began back to the water taxi. On the way, we ran into the Wall Street Bull.
At 6:00pm, we had a welcome party. We ate food and learned about the other teachers in the academy. At 7:00pm, we had our official welcome banquet. We met some people who are very important in the science and math fields. We were also put into table number groups and given a challenge to do some building AFTER we ate supper (which was incredible, by the way!).
When the assembly got over at 8:30, I wanted to take a walk around the hotel. Here's what I saw. Can't wait until tomorrow. It's going to be awesome! We will be learning all day at the Liberty Science Center!
Time to head for bed! Thanks for reading along!