Tired feet found shelter at the top balcony in the Meyerson Symphony Center. Students relaxed back in their dresses and tuxedos and listened as the Dallas Symphony started to play, now allowed to rest after the long day of traveling.
This year, Orchestra director Breanna Parker took 35 orchestra students and three chaperones on a three-day trip to Dallas, Texas, visiting places such as The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza and Six Flags Over Texas.
“The trip was a blast,” Parker said.
The group left the school on Friday, April 4, at around 7:30 a.m., heading to their first stop at Buc-ee’s for lunch. Students got an hour and a half to grab food and shop for anything they wanted to grab before heading to their first stop in Dallas: The Sixth Floor Museum, a museum that presented both information about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy but also how everyone viewed the event, even having a whole floor dedicated to children’s drawings of what they experienced on that day.
“I thought historically the Sixth Floor Museum was interesting,” Parker said. “…but I think the students didn’t fully understand the importance of the Sixth Floor Museum.”
Whilst at the museum students had to change into formal attire for the symphony. After the museum students went and ate at El Fenix, a Mexican food restaurant. Once dinner ended, students boarded the bus and headed to the symphony at 7:30 p.m.. When there, students ascended the stairs up to the very top where the seats gave them a view of the whole stage and symphony.
“It was a great symphony,” Junior Paden Simpson said. “A great way to unwind from an eight hour drive.”
The next day the group visited Six Flags Over Texas, getting there at 10 a.m.. Due to the rainy weather and lightning risks, some rides like the Texas Titan and the Texas Sky Screamer remained closed at arrival. Even with the weather, less people visited and lines shortened.
“Six Flags was my favorite part,” Simpson said. “I guess because of the weather there weren’t any lines until about one or two in the afternoon, so my group got to do everything we wanted to do multiple times.”
Around 3 p.m., the Texas Titan and other rides which were previously closed, reopened. Near the end of the time at Six Flags Over Texas, most students found shelter from the weather in shops or restaurants like Johnny Rockets, while others went to ride their last few rides before the time at the park was up.
“My favorite part of Six Flags Over Texas was the Texas Titan roller coaster,” Sophomore Jackson Pratt said. “I enjoyed it so much that I rode it five times in a row.”
The next day, the group went to the Dallas Aquarium which not just shows off several types of fish and aquatic animals like a manatee and some starfish, but also several land animals like a matschie tree kangaroo and a sloth. After looking around, students could shop at the gift shops.
“Probably my favorite for the whole trip was the aquarium,” Parker said. “I was really surprised by how close we were to the animals and how many diverse species there were.”
After the aquarium, the group visited their final stop: TopGolf. When there, students could play golf and eat from an array of food set up buffet style with options from chips and queso to injectable donut holes with raspberry and chocolate fillings.
“I had never played golf before and didn’t really want to play,” Sophomore Madison Miller said. “And it was also freezing outside.”
When the time at TopGolf ended, students boarded and began their eight hour trip back home. Despite the cold, the three day trip had little disruptions affecting the experience. Students arrived back at the school that night and went home with new memories from the trip.
“I had a great time and a lot of fun on the trip and it was a good break to get away from the end of year stresses of school,” Simpson said.
