After months of planning, we finally took our first big trip as a troop (besides camping). Destination? New York City. Which explains why we all met in Bethesda on Friday, March 7, to board a bus that was bound for New York City. From the start it was an interesting trip. Due to a combination of bad weather and traffic, the trip took longer than we planned. When we finally got to the city, we were greeted by a very wet evening. Grabbing our umbrellas and bags, we attempted to catch taxis to take us to the youth hostel we were staying at. After walking a few blocks to get to an area that would afford us a better chance of actually catching a cab, we managed to get two, and arrived at the hostel safe and sound. We got our room keys and went up to the bunk room that all six girls and Connie were going to be sharing, only to find that the hostel had filled the eighth bed with another person. We were a little surprised to walk in and find someone asleep in one of the beds, but we quickly recovered and went down to Doug's room to discuss plans. We didn't talk long before heading off to bed, excited for the weekend ahead.

On Saturday, just about all of us awoke much earlier than we needed to, out of sheer excitement. We ate the breakfast that the hostel offered and got dressed and ready for the day. Then, we once again met in Doug's room to finalize plans before heading off. We only waited close to half an hour for a train that didn't run on weekends before realizing our mistake! In the city, our first stop was an outdoor market. There were all sorts of good things for sale there, from cheese and bread to cider and jam. As we were leaving, it started to pour. Rather than go to a museum or gallery, we intrepid travellers headed off to Chinatown. However, the rain proved to be too much for us there, so we headed off for a lunch of delcious (and interesting) dim sum. As we were leaving the restaurant, Danielle's aunt joined our group. In Chinatown we did a lot of shopping, especially in the purse and handbag departments. We all have some great stories about that experience. Despite the recent lunch, we were getting hungry, so we headed to Pinkberry for frozen yogurt, another big hit. We explored SoHo after our snack, spending a lot of time in Evolution, a store with all sorts of cool things like rocks, gemstones, fossils, and very interesting candy (just ask Charlotte). After Evolution, Danielle's aunt left the group and we continued on to the Morgan Gallery, where we saw an exhibit of Irving Penn photographs, and a gigantic library that had a Geutenberg bible, among other things. We rushed down to John's Pizzeria for a dinner of authentic New York Pizza and pasta before heading back up to Times Square to go to Broadway. We saw the show Spamalot, which was great. We all loved it, but I think that the biggest kick came in the closing number, which was a singalong! How perfect for Girl Scouts, who pratically sing nonstop. After the show, we were dead tired, but managed to buy some show souvioners and take a few photos (and almost get Clay Aiken's autograph!). Then it was back to the hostel and bed.

Sunday was very difficult to wake up, with the combination of the time change and the long, wet day we had before. We all managed to get up in time to eat and pack up, then once again met to plan our day. It was more difficult to plan because we only had a little time, and there was so much we wanted to see. Ultimately, we started out at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where we saw the costuming exhibit, the Egyptian artifacts, and some modern art. From the museum, we were able to walk through Central Park until we found the Balto statue. We took a ton of photos, then broke off to the side to have a mini-meeting. We all got our Silver Awards and bridged to Seniors by running a "victory lap"- up and over a bridge, then back down to the statue where our bags were waiting. We picked everything back up and walked over to Dylan's Candy Bar, where we saw enough sugar to send just about anybody into a sugar coma. Needless to say, we all left with slightly more energy. We were running short on time, so we caught taxis over to the bus stop and loaded our bags on, to reserve our seats. Then, we bought lunch from a street vendor and rushed back to the bus, which left almost instantly. It was a much quicker ride back to Bethesda. We're already thinking about our next big trip, and despite the almost constant rain on Saturday, we all had a great time.