By Joel Stottrup

Was it the Burt, the chimney sweep walking up and down vertical walls and upside down across a ceiling on the stage of the musical "Mary Poppins," or could it have been the sight of Poppins herself, disappearing into the theater ceiling in the end?

Maybe it was the tour of Ellis Island where thousands of immigrants were once checked as they sought to find new beginnings America?

Or could it have been the tour of Central Park, or going past such landmarks as the Dakota Apartments where former Beatle John Lennon lived and the gated area outside where he was assassinated?

Maybe it was the opera excerpts at the famed Metropolitan Opera, or the Broadway play, "The Drowsy Chaperone."

It was likely a lot of these things and more that made for last week's trip to New York by 93 Princeton High School choir students in grades 10-12 and their chaperones memorable.

For the students and the six adult chaperones the trip to New York began in two coach buses, taking about a day each way.

The PHS choirs take such a long distance trip every three years as an educational and recreational experiences that includes singing at a few sites.

The cost per student is $885. The fee includes transportation, lodging, meals, and tickets to plays and tours.

The adults on the trip besides Potvin, were his wife Susan, Cindy Klaphake, Chuck and Linda Zarns, and PHS band director Jesse Miller.

The weather was on the cool side, often in the 30s and 40s, and there was some rain. But the students held up well, according to Potvin, for not only weathering the conditions but also keeping up enough energy for the packed itinerary.

PHS Senior Tony Hallin, who got into the spotlight one morning on the trip by speaking on national TV as part of The Today Show set that the students visited, said afterward about New York City: "I need to move there for a couple years of my life. It's the best place I've ever been to."

Hallin wasn't sure what he would single out for what he liked best on the trip, saying the whole thing was "amazing."

Student, Kristen Moe, said she wouldn't want to live in New York City but would like to return there someday.

Manhattan Island is the part of New York City that the trip centered on and choir director Potvin put the locale in perspective. It has about the same population as Minnesota (about five million) and yet Manhattan Island has an area close to the size of St. Cloud, he said.

The island has worldwide-famous landmarks. They include Wall Street with the New York Stock Exchange trading floor, the Empire State Building, the Broadway theater district, large cathedrals, Central Park, Greenwich Village, Liberty Island with the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City's version of Chinatown, the Lincoln Center arts complex, the United Nations headquarters, and also, because of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Ground Zero, where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood.

The group had planned to go to the top of the Empire State building early in the week. But during their first two attempts they found the line too long, so they postponed it until the end for a final attempt.

By the end of their first day in New York, Monday, April 2, they had taken a ferry from New Jersey where they had their lodging, to Ellis Island and Liberty Island. After that first day a day of sightseeing after having just completed the long bus ride, the group was pretty tired that evening back at their hotel, Potvin said.

Ground Zero was the first stop on their second day. Potvin described the students as being "thoughtful" about the site.

Greenwich Village, known for its history of arts and folk culture in Manhattan was something some of the group visited that second day.

The big eating event on Tuesday was the pre-planned 10-course traditional Chinese meal in Chinatown.

Unless someone had an allergy to a particular food, Potvin said, everyone was urged to try each of the courses.

That reflected the trip's mantra, according to Potvin, that everyone on the trip was to be a seeker of knowledge, to push out of a person's "comfort zone" and sample new cultural things.

Part of the group's big-city experience, with that in mind, was taking a subway to Lincoln Center, home of the New York City Ballet, New York City Opera and New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Many of the students at the end, after having switched subway trains, said they could probably do that again sometime on their own, Potvin noted.

The choir students gave a concert on the grounds of the Lincoln Center during the day and then attended the Metropolitan Opera there in the evening. It was the Metropolitan Opera's 40th anniversary and the show consisted of excerpts from various operas.

Student, Tyler Roehl, said he found the opera "good, and really interesting."

Roehl also said he would like to go back to New York someday and spend more time in places like the stores he saw.

Some of the New York natives, upon hearing that the students had tickets to the opera were "aghast" at how they were able to have the privilege of attending it, Potvin said. He said they witnessed two fabulous soloists, one a tenor and the other a soprano performing lead roles at the opera.

The group was awakened at 3:45 one morning to be on the bus at 4:30 for the ride to the Today Show TV set. Weatherman Al Roker, asked Hallin some questions about the group during the broadcast. It was fun being on national TV, Hallin said.

The group also toured the NBC studios used for the shows, Saturday Night Live, Dateline and Conan O'Brien.

Another tour was held at Radio City Music Hall, home of the famous Rockettes dancers.

Shopping was arranged along Manhattan Island's Fifth Avenue, followed by dinner at Planet Hollywood in Hollywood Square.

The group also saw the comedy, "The Drowsy Chaperone" at the Marquis Theater on Broadway. The play, with its contemporary humor, was a "riot," said Potvin.

Thursday's itinerary included visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History, followed by a guided tour through Central Park.

Sites pointed out to the group included the New York City home of the late John Lennon, and also a tribute in Central Park to Lennon that Lennon's wife Yoko Ono established called Strawberry Fields. The entourage also saw a memorial in Central Park for the late Jackie Kennedy Onassis.

Another stop was the Cathedral of St. John Divine, which Potvin says is the world's largest gothic style cathedral. Construction began on it 150 years ago and the work still continues. Much of the cathedral is blocked off for use because of the unfinished work.

The acoustics of the cathedral are "gorgeous," Potvin said. The concert choir tested them out by singing a number there.

Next was a bus tour that took them past such places as Harlem with its Apollo Theatre, Grant's Tomb, Columbia University and Times Square.

The "Mary Poppins" musical the group saw on Broadway was great for its "spectacle" of special effects, said Potvin.

That included the chimney sweep walking as if there was no gravity, up one vertical wall, across the ceiling and down another vertical wall along the open, or proscenium part of the stage.

The "Poppins" musical also had Mary Poppins seeming to disappear into the ceiling after she flew above the audience.

"The kids went wild" when that happened, Potvin said.

A three-hour Circle Line boat cruise on the Hudson River also gave a perspective of Manhattan Island. The views took in Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, the Brooklyn Bridge, the United Nations complex and the Chrysler building.

Many of the kids huddled to keep warm on that cruise on Friday as it was cold.

Early that day the group tried one more time to get into the Empire State building and this time succeeded after about an hour and 15 minute wait in line. They had a clear view of much of the city from the 86th floor observation deck, said Potvin.

Their last stop on the trip was the Jersey Garden Mall in New Jersey, where the choir students sang two songs.

At 6 p.m. eastern time the two buses began rolling back toward Minnesota.

While Potvin talked enthusiastically about all the cultural sights on the trip, he said the best part for him was not that.

Instead, it was how the students carried themselves. "I can't express enough what great ambassadors our kids are," Potvin said. "They really rose to the occasion every single day."

Even if they were tired and maybe felt crabby at times, "they stepped up and made the most of the experience," Potvin said.

One of the goals of the trip as well, he added, was for everyone to get to know each other better.

He asked for a show of hands late in the trip if they had either gotten to know someone better from their school or even gotten to know someone they had not known much at all. All raised their hands that they had done some of that, he said.

It was another example of their seeking new things, Potvin said. He added that a huge benefit of such a trip is making friends and reaching out.

"It's easier to stick with what you know," said Potvin. The trip, he said, was "nothing short of a small miracle."

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