New York State - Wyatt

    Our only three spots we stopped at in New York State were Manhattan, Corning, and Busti, where we drove as far as we could to see the eclipse happen.

In Manhattan, there were lots of different places to eat. The first food place that mom took us to was her favourite bagel place. It was called BO’S Bagels, and it was great. At BO’S, they had pretty much fifteen different kinds of bagels, along with eight or nine different cream cheeses. I got a 3CBO (cheese, bacon, onion bagel) with chocolate chip cream cheese. The second food place we went to was the Levain Bakery that is known for its cookies. At the Levain Bakery dad and I got chocolate chip cookies. Gibson got a dark chocolate peanut butter cookie and mom got a carmel coconut cookie. They say that those were great cookies, and those were GREAT cookies. They were the thickest cookies I have ever eaten. We also went to a Jewish Deli and its name was Katz’s Deli. At the Jewish Deli mom ordered a Reuben sandwich that had cheese, corned beef, and saurkraut on rye bread. That was the biggest sandwich ever.  The first time we went to the Shake Shack, I got a Shack Burger, and it was one of the best fast food burgers I have ever had. Too bad that we don’t have it in Canada. 

    Some of the attractions in Manhattan that we went to were the Empire State Building, Time Square and a Broadway show called Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. When dad, Gibson and I went to the top of the Empire State Building there were so many different buildings that were just as high as the building we were on. I thought that the elevator was going to go twice as fast as it actually went. When we were in the elevator, there was a tv screen on the roof, and when we went up, it showed the building getting built. I loved going to the top of Empire State Building and seeing as far as I could see. My favourite attraction that we went to was the Harry Potter broadway show. At the broadway show there were so many cool things to see. The stage had a really big clock that looked really old. If you’ve ever watched Harry Potter, to get into the Ministry, they would walk into a telephone booth and that would transport them to the Ministry. In this Broadway show, there was a telephone booth and when Harry Potter walked over to it, it sucked him right into a tiny little hole in the wall. It was cool to see, because it actually looked like he vanished. The last big attraction that we visited was Time Square. In Time Square, there was so many lights, and on the second day when we returned, we saw some street performers. When they were doing their tricks they took a kid from the crowd and they did a back flip over him. I personally liked the broadway show the best, but all of them were still really awesome. 

Following the days in Manhattan, we drove to the city of Corning. The city of Corning  was where we went to the Corning Museum of Glass. We knew of the museum because we had watched Blown Away, and every glass blower on the show really wants to win the prize package because they would get a residency at the Corning Museum of Glass. At the museum there were live demonstrations. One demonstration that we saw was glass blowing. This guy made a bowl with a glass napkin draped over it. There was another one, where a lady that was doing Flamework made a dinosaur with big rods of glass. Flamework requires rods of glass and a torch that shoots straight and won’t get you hot when you put your hands beside it. The dinosaur was about the size of a baseball, and looked really cute. 

On the second day at the glass museum, we sandblasted our own cups. Before we sandblasted them, we put stickers on our cups where we wanted them to stay clear. We wiped  all the stickers off after they got blasted. It was cool because I now have my own personal piece of art. After we finished sand blasting, dad and I each made a pendant that will be sent home to Summerland for when we get back. To make the pendant, we used solid rods of glass. We heated them up with a torch that was bolted to the metal table. My pendant was orange, red and a dark orange colour that I’m not quite sure the name of. I love my pendant’s colours, and it’s about the size of a golf ball. 

The last stop we made in New York State was Busti to see the eclipse. We ended up in Busti, by driving as far west as we could to try to be in the path of totality. The eclipse was super cool, and because we were right in the path of totality, it was pitch black when the moon fully covered the sun. I am so happy that I saw it. When we watched the eclipse, there was a really cool ring around the sun.

I had a good time in New York State, but I think it would feel like a whole different world if I went back in twenty years. I bet that if I came back in twenty years there would be way bigger buildings and roads, way more people and way less space to move around in. That was a pretty good state but not a state that I would have in my top three states. Currently, my top three states are Wyoming, Oregon and The Baja, if I could include that as a state.