Day #5 - Washington, the Congressman and Capital Hill.

When was the last time a TSS group had the opportunity to ever meet with the US congressmen (apart from the group last year :) ). Today visit to Washington was a moment that I don't think the boys fully appreciated at the time but certainly in reflection will understand that this meeting for only 15 - 20 minutes, was one of certain significance in their lives.

Congressmen Andy Barr is a Republican representative of Kentucky (Lexington Div.) and has been in office for his electorate now since 2011. Meeting with the TSS boys and staff in Washington, near Capital Hill, is a moment for all involved to savoir. He spoke briefly to the boys about his role in office and what committees he is involved in. He also spoke to the boys and answered questions about things that related to the current state of US politics and also the US/Australia alliance. At the end of his discussion there was a photo opportunity with our boys in front of his offices (unfortunately due to rain, and heavy rain in that, we had to look at an alternative place for this shot).

Prior to meeting the Congressmen, his staff (Interns) split the group into to 2 and we got to see one of the world most iconic buildings from the inside. Capitol Hill is magnificent, outside and even more so inside. Inside there are close to 4000 rooms, many with stunning roof and wall decorations. For me significantly and for many of the others today, the Dome area was the high point literally. The height, on the scale, and the colour, and the history with in that room was amazing (please watch the video on the Flickr page). There are 6 to 8 large historic paintings that depict significant moments in time. inc the American revolution, Americas discovery, British rule, and one in particular that I questioned was the painting that represented a scene from Pocahontas baptism in Spain (yes in Spain). A very interesting story behind that, as she actually died in Spain, after being 'taken' from US.

We were guided through many other rooms, inc the old Senate, and Rep rooms, that have a huge significant part in the American political landscape. Then the tour took a detour and we were given the opportunity, not many people do get to do, and actually go and sit in the spectator gallery within the House of Representatives, watching and listening whilst there were a number opf speakers on the floor. Representatives from both Republic and Democratic parties present. Unfortunately, we caught the tail end of a congressman's speak, before they all went off to recess (morning tea), but just being in the same room as where the President does his address call "the State of the Nation", something to remember for the future.

After walking around within the Capitol Hill building we were lead underneath through tunnels and across the road to Congressmen Barr's office. The Tunnels, all underneath these buildings are the subway/walk ways system where people within all of the buildings are connected. This then enables them to not walk outside in the elements, which like today was very hot but potentially very cold in the winter. After thanking the Congressmen and his staff for all this help and assistance we then proceeded across the mall to the Library of Congress. 

Caught in a wild rain storm, this trip was not a pleasant one into the Library. Although once inside this building, again some historic monuments as well as the Benjamin Franklin library, Congress Library, exhibitions, and depictions of other significant events. The mosaic paintings on the walls and ceiling is make this building quite a visually vibrant experience for all to see. Again have a look at the Flickr page....

After an hour or so in the Library of Congress, we then walked around Capitol Hill to our bus. With the weather at this stage still raining in patches, and most of the boys wet, it was decided we'd see the other memorials from the window of the bus. Driving down the Mall to the (George) Washington monument, which stands in the middle of the mall at a height of over a few hundred metres high. It's a significant piece to look stand with many visitors walking around the edges amongst the 52 flags that Circle surrounds its base. It is one of those moments the boys were intrigued to know more about.

From here we walk down near Pennsylvania Avenue West towards the home of the US president, Mr Trump in the White House. Thankfully we weren't on foot, as there was an unusually large presence of protesters (protesting Immigration and the incarceration of the Mexican children).

Driving on we passed the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, and then headed to the Pentagon Mall for lunch.

Once finished, we where dropped close by to the Pentagon itself, and visited the 911 Memorial for the victims of the plane crash that hit the Pentagon. A lovely tribute garden for all the victims and one the boys were very interested to see. As we walk out of the Park lands, a military officer was kind enough to give us some stats on the building itself. Its the largest office building in the world, house 35,000 people every day. Its four stories up, and in places 2 stories deep as well. It house mainly Military and some clerical staff, inc the Head of Defense and leaders of each division, Army, Navy and Air force. 

From here we hopped back onto the bus and went to the Marine Corps own monument which again is a historic statue that represents the involvement in the Crimean War by the US Marines, and all battles since the US joined the different wars.

We returned to the hotel for a bit of washing, a kip, and then later in the afternoon walked over across the Potomac River Bridge into Georgetown University. A large residential University for many students from many countries. It is an one of the Top Universities in the USA, and the grounds are spectacular. We had a group dinner there in a beautiful Mexican cantina and enjoyed each others company once again. We also celebrated Tylan's 15th Birthday as well with some cupcakes from world renown Georgetown Cupcakes. As our second city, tomorrow we will go and see a few more of the sites before departing on our plane off to Seattle tomorrow evening...

PS. 14km today, and mid 70kms this Tour so far.... :)

Day #4 New York final day, B&H Tour, Chelsea Markets, Highline, and bus to Washington

B&H is a Jewish owned and run electronic company, where many of the staff speak Hebrew to each other. We were lucky enough to have a tour of the building and meet many of the staff. Henry Posner, the Dir of Corporate Communications, took us for an extensive walk around what can only be described as an 'incredible' business. Started in the 70s by a husband and wife, the business and grown and developed with changes in technology, to become the World's Largest Source of Photography, Home & Portable Entertainment, Computers, etc etc... with over 500 staff working in the Building, where orders are made in-store and via the internet, it was wonderful to learn how this business as evolved, adapted to change in this space. With only one store and a warehouse, it was such a great opportunity for the boys to see the operations.

After a few hours at B&H we jumped onto the subway and went down to the more trendy area of Manhattan called Chelsea, to visit the Chelsea markets, and the meat packers district. These markets reminded us all very much of another version of  Ferry Road markets with a wide selection of food and clothing stores ranging from everything from an Aussie pie, all the way through to beautiful soups and sandwiches etc. Some of the photos will indicate the different types of outlets that were on offer... an amazing place. 

Next after lunch was a newly constructing walk from Chelsea back up to midtown called the "Highline". The Highline previously was an old above ground subway track and the local communities now have turned this into a wonderfully vibrant community garden and art 'show', which stretches on for about 3 -4 km. The boys strolled along here looking at the artwork and the gardens, making it a lovely way to finish our New York City journey.

A highlight was the final stretch of this walk was up above the Hudson River, where many years ago a plane landed in the Hudson River with all passages surviving the crash. We heard the story about this today, called the "Miracle of the Hudson" and it has now been turned into a movie that featured Tom Hanks.

Come 4pm (and after another 11km day) we packed up and hopped onto the bus to head south down to Washington DC. The journey takes you through 5 states, New York State, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and into Virginia, and passing by major cities inc. Philadelphia & Baltimore. The bus pulled over after about two hours into the trip for the boys to grab some dinner as a 'Welcome Centre" basically a larger version of a Petrol station with food). The boys seemed to all enjoy the Popeye Chicken (fired chicken pieces), or Panda Express Chinese and a dessert specially called a "Cinnamon Scroll".

Just at sunset we arrived in Washington DC to drive past some of the local monuments including the Pentagon, The Washington monument and also Arlington Cemetery, all in which we will visit in coming days. We arrived into the hotel at about 9:30 PM go to rooms and boys headed off to bed for a big day tomorrow where we will visit our first US Congressman at Capitol Hill. Should be a very exciting day.

Day #3 - NYC, Macquarie Bank, Yankee Stadium and a Broadway show.... what else is there?

Today started with one of the best young old boys speaking to the group, Mr Stephen Darke. Stephen works for Macquarie Bank here in New York as investment and acquisitions manager and runs the New York office, buying into young start-up businesses and see them through their journey. Stevens talked to the boys was fantastic once again (as he has spoken to this Group now for approx 5 years). Very relevant, and yet, from the heart when he spoke about how TSS set him up for this life ahead. He talked about his journey from TSS to New York and also about some Life lessons that has learnt along the way. Giving the boys some wonderful knowledge and information that will hopefully help them and inspire them to look further in their dreams in the business sector. Unfortunately though, this will have been the last time we see him in NYC, as he and his young family return to Australia at the end of the year, to live in Sydney, and see his parents more often. Its been a wonderful opportunity to every year have a speaker of his knowledge and experience meet with the boys on this trip. We thank him for taking the time out of his busy schedule to do this.

Following a short tour of the Bank's wonderful office space, which inc a 'Google-like' cafeteria, we headed off to the Bronx on the subway for a bite to eat in preparation for our Tour of one of the world's famous Sports Stadiums.

In the late 1800s New York was looking to put together a baseball team and family, the Steinbrenner with others, formed the New York Yankees. Their logo originally was the New York Police department symbol but the original CEO who also was a policeman at the time brought it across to the Team and now it's become the symbol of this iconic Baseball Club. The symbol is the 'N' crossing over a 'Y'.

After a quick lunch, we started our guided tour of the New York Yankee Stadium, Monument Park. A 50000 seat stadium  with a sole purpose to host just baseball. This tour goes for about an hour, weaving around all the memorabilia and monuments of wonderful players of the past for this iconic team. Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, to name a few, were historical members of this team and the boys enjoyed hearing the stories of their many victories and premierships in the World Series Baseball League. The tour took us underneath near the change rooms and also to the monument where many of the great players numbers have been hung up and retired. The final part of the tour took us up to the press box where the media set for every game this is a spectacular site from up there to see the entire field and the grass being prepared  for the game which are occurring later this week.

A subway ride is common practice here in New York, and the boys are starting to get used to the Metro system here. Interestingly enough, we (the staff) are trying to teach them a 'life skill', and get us home after each trip away, but at this stage.... not a huge amount of success. Maybe tomorrow...

School of Rock is the stage version of the movie of the same name. Written and musical produced by Englishman, Andrew Lloyd Webster, it was wonderful show full of lots of singing dancing and a lot of laughs. I'm pretty sure the boys enjoyed it particularly as it was a show that some of them had seen the movie and could understand the plot quite easily. Just being able to go to Broadway show in itself is one of the highlights of the day and many of the boys on the walk home spoke about that fact.

With a couple of  boys struggling with jet lag, they are being looked after staff, and the rest are enjoying the tour so far. so much to see....

Another long day,  with one more day here in New York before we head down to Washington. We look forward tomorrow to Chelsea Markets, the Highline and a Tour of one of the world's largest Electronic stores here in Manhattan (B&H Photo).

FY... as it was a stage production on Broadway, sorry little photos were taken...

Day #2 NYC and the Rock.

I'm pretty sure the boys want to change the name of the business study tour to walking across America as I had a few grumbles today after our second long day of walking (18ks day #1, and today 15ks #2 + plus a couple more days walking around NYC to go) where will be pretty close to now 50 - 60 kms in four days around NYC. So it's been a journey, but one that the boys will never forget.

Today started with a Metro ride up to 59th St and a morning walk through the lowwer end of Central Park. Strolling passed many family on a Sunday morning, runners and even houre&buggies. Stretching for about 5 km one way and 2 km another way, it is an enormous area inside this wonderful city on an Island.

Once out of the woods, we walked up to 5th Avenue and the typically, the boys most pressing question was "where does Donald Trump live?' (away from the White House). We went to the Donald Trump building on 5th Ave, where there used to be a very large Nike store called 'Niketown' inside, BUT due to the police/Sercet Service presence in nthe building, a drop in patrons, the store closed down.  After walking the rest of the way down fifth Avenue passing the Louis Vinton (excuse the spelling please), Dolce Gabbana, Bulgvia? and all of the other big name brands stores that were too expensive for us to walk into, we got strolled down 5th Ave to St Patricks Cathedral. The main Catholic Cathredral in NYC, and home to many famous wedding and some Movies (ie Ghostbusters). Across the road, we discovered the Rockefeller Centre, and a huge Lego store. Further down the street, the boys discovered the NBA Official Headquarters store. With many bball fans, they all wanted to check it out, look at the new season gear, and even purchase some one-off memorabilia.

Next stop the wonderfully iconic Grand Central Station.

This building is truly magnificent with its high high ceiling paint celestial stars and marble archways (please have a look at the photos to just take in how beautiful this area is). The boys were blown away by the size and the magnitude of this 'train station'. As a gift to New York by the Vanderbilt Family, it truely is a place everyone needs to see.. Underneath Grand Central Station is a wonderful food court where we had some lunch today and enjoyed a range of all different nationality type foods.

Upon leaving the station we walked down Park Ave, looking at the most expensive housing in NYC. From here we headed west, across 34th st, towards Penn Station shopping precinct, and finally our Hotel. Today was 'Gay Pride' Day and New York holds one of the largest Marches in the World. We did get caught up in this briefly, as the boys seems very 'interested' in seeing what this was all about. Plenty of sights and colours to see, and overall, thousands of people around South Manhattan. Followed by some more retail therapy through the mid afternoon before returning to Hotel for a quick shower and prepare for dinner in Time Square.

We once again jumped on the subway all the way up to Times Square. Here we enjoyed our first team group dinner, overlooking Time Square itself, at Bubba Gumps themed restaurant. A lovely meal for everyone to enjoy and have a bit of a laugh about the tour so far.

After this delicious meal we walked around to the Rockefeller Centre and went to the 'Top of the Rock' Observatory. This for me personally was the highlight of the day being able to get up above all of the city skyline looking down to the south where the Empire State building is and looking up on the north to where Central Park. Interestingly enough, being "Gay Pride' day, all of the major highrises coloured their towers. Look at the Flickr page to see the lights.... The Big Apple at night is a spectacular and alive. Please have a look at the photos on our Flickr website.

Following a long day, at around 1100 we headed back to the hotel in preparation for another exciting day in New York. First up we are going to Macquarie Bank to chat with an Old Boy, and off to Yankee Stadium for the afternoon Tour.

A tremendous few days and the boys have been excellent. They have really engaged and enjoyed the trip so far and starting to make new friendships amongst others in the group they don't know. It has been a pleasure so far, and the staff have enjoyed seeing the boys really enjoy it as well.

Day #1 New York City experienced

Today was our first full day of exploring the Big Apple, the City that never sleeps... ... New York City,

This morning we woke early and had a delicious breakfast in the hotels restaurant before heading out and jumping on our first experience in the New York subway. We caught the subway to downtown Manhattan, thankfully with not too many people around. The day was a little overcast, and cool. Around 23c... which make a lovely change from the 35s here in 2017.

Upon arriving down at Chambers Street Station, we headed towards our first sightseeing, the Brooklyn Bridge. Passing by some of the more historical building sites, including the Woolworth building, City Hall, and then up onto the grand walk of the Brooklyn Bridge. With over 20,000 people a day walk on this bridge, it was quite packed with many people enjoying the sights of the southern end of Manhattan Island, atop of this lovely grand old bridge.

After leaving the bridge we headed over to the 911 memorial and looked around at the memorial to this incredible disaster. It was a bit of an eye-opener for the boys as many of them didn't know and didn't appreciate what had happened on this day. As you look around the reflection pools where the two twin towers stood the names of all the people that lost their lives in this tragic incident. Quiet a somber reflective time for all...

Near the Memorials pools for 911, was a recently erected statue of a modern army officer riding a horse. The statue represented the Marines going into battle in Afghanistan, after 911. The current movie "12 Strong" describes the fight for freedom in the initial stages against the Taliban. Funnily enough many of the boys watch this movie across in the plane and knew the history behind the story.

Boys grab the bit of lunch nearby and then we headed down to the financial district of Manhattan's downtown, the Wall Street area. Visiting the Charging Bull, Wall Street, New York Stock Exchange, Federal Reserve,  and many other buildings but the one that intrigue many of our boys was Trumps tower here in Wall Street. With many of the boys wanting to get a photo in front of it, for their memories.

Following this we went down to the water side, Hudson River region,  and walked along the park lands around the Battery Park. Located right at the bottom end of the Manhattan Island, this was the location for our next journey, out by ferry to The Statue of Liberty and then Ellis Island. The grand old lady, the Statue of Liberty was originally donated by the French to the USA, as a sign of friendship between the two countries. Once out there the boys got a chance to walk around the island and get photos of themselves in front of one of the iconic symbols of America, with Manhattan's skyline in the background. Then the boat cruise took us also to Ellis Island where it originally was an immigration centre which originally housed all of the immigrants coming to America in the early 1800s.

After a two hour cruise around the New York's Hudson River Harbour, we will return back to battery Park and jumped on the subway back to Penn Station, which is located near Madison Square Garden so the boys got to enjoy the best of both worlds being able to see the garden where the NY Knicks play and also to be able to do a bit of retail therapy to and buy some of their favourite sporting gear and athletic shoes. The shoe shop seem to be a hit so far with many of the boys picking up one or even two pairs of their favourite basketball or running shoes they seem to be significantly cheaper here in New York then back home in Australia.

After a brief rest in the hotel we walked back to Madison Square Garden's Food Hall for a quick bite to eat, and then up to Times Square to jump on the Sightseeing bus night tour which took us again back down around the downtown precincts including Soho, Chelsea, and the China district of Manhattan's south. This is a wonderful way to see what is a very old but a very historical area of this wonderful city. Upon return to Time Square, we finish the night by giving the boys and opportunity to look around, with the many thousands of other people that were there at the time. Certainly some eye-opening sites for our boys to see before heading back to the hotel and getting a deserved good night sleep.

A long day, over 18kms of walking (from my iPhone stats), and certainly a great way to start this tour.

A reminder the photos from the day are added to the Flickr page. (sorry if some of the night photos are a little blurry... I'm trying to get used to a new camera. Should be fine by the end n of the Tour :) )

Travel Day - All the way to NYC

Transition through BNE was quick and painless especially with all the new technology passport scanners.

Once on the plane it was an easy 13 hr flight across the Pacific to LA. Most boys enjoyed the food, a few movies and also got a bit of sleep but you could tell when the wheels popped down in LA that the excitement had lifted and they were pleased the long haul flight was over. Although one boy 'detained' in security for a little while (due to problems with his finger prints???) the rest of the LAX stop was fine and incident free. :).

After a quick bite to eat at the domestic terminal before boarding.  As we gathered to depart at the gate, an announcement come over the PA that New York's JFK airport that some passengers were running late to the connecting flight so this delayed us on momentarily, before we too off.

Another 5 hr flight between LA and NYC saw us arrive in the big apple just ahead of a cloudy sunset around 7pm. JFK airport was buzzing with travelers and our boys looked a little overwhelmed but excited as we jumped onto our bus and headed into our city accommodation at the Fairfield Marriott.

Basically all went to bed straight after a quick tour of the Midtown area and another bite to eat. All ready for our big day tomorrow.

Bring on Lower Manhattan.

PS a limited photo day. I have added a couple for all to see.

4 Day to go....

Hi All,

Please arrive at Hall of Fame before 600am, as we have baggage tags and labels to sort out with the bus departing before 6.30am.

See you all Friday morning.

Cheers

IGB