A Rainy New Jersey Day

We spent our day in the Garden State.  This was the first time that many of our students got to see the ocean or visit an Ivy League college.  This was my first visit to New Jersey, and I have to admit that I found it to be very pretty, even with the constant rain.
We were picked up at 8:15 by a big yellow school bus and our driver Dwayne.  We headed straight to Princeton, NJ, where we got a nice tour of campus and visited the bookstore.  Princeton's campus is beautiful and I think it made an impression on many of our students.  It is always so amazing to think that many of those buildings have been there for a couple of centuries.  Lots of beautiful stone work and stained glass windows.
We headed back to the bus after the tour to make our way to Seaside Heights, NJ-home of the Jersey Shore cast and house.  Of course, the first place many of us headed was to the Shore Store where the cast works and around the corner to see the front of the house.  Some of our students were able to see the cast while they were at work.  And our intrepid leader even went in and bought a t-shirt from one of them...without realizing he was "famous".
Even though it was rainy and cool and lot of our students took the opportunity to play in the ocean a little bit.  It was nearly impossible to drag them out for dinner.  They begged for just 10 more minutes!  It is great to see all the students blending together and finding things to do in groups that include students from other schools.
Dinner was 24 inch pies from Maruca Tomato Pies on the boardwalk.  Great pizza, and we were able to bring home all the leftovers for the crowd to munch on while we were having free time at the motel.
All in all, a great day, even with constant rain.  The students were troopers through it all.  They asked great questions on the tour, behaved well on the bus and were generally on time (some were a little late thanks to the cast of Jersey Shore).
Tomorrow is a full day of college tours, starting with Philadelphia University and ending at Drexel University.  We have our Independence After Hours tour tomorrow night.  We will be the only people on the tour, which means we get a private show at Independence Hall!  I know the adults are really looking forward to the evening adventure and I am hoping the students will be too!