From a bright and early 4 a.m. on the first Saturday of Spring Break, a select group of students commenced their journey to the city that never sleeps, New York.

“The only thing that got me out of bed that day was the thought that in just a few hours I’d be in one of the most amazing cities in the world,” sophomore Lizzie Guerra said.

Any high school students involved in any fine arts program were invited to attend. However, it was no surprise that more than two-thirds of the the participants were members of West Shore’s  Thespian Troupe 6034. The focus of the trip was to see four Broadway shows.

“We saw ‘The King and I,’ ‘A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and ‘On the Town’ and ‘Phantom of the Opera,’” Guerra said. “The clever plot and all-around feel-good mood of the show made ‘A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder’ my favorite show we saw.”

The students also visited a number of other must-see spots of New York, including the Statue of Liberty, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Sept. 11 memorial.

“The Metropolitan Museum of Art was the most breathtaking and jaw-dropping part of the whole trip,” junior Hannah Montgomery said. “It was incredible to finally get to see pieces, like Van Gogh’s Self Portrait — pieces you learn about in school but finally get to see them face-to-face.”

The students returned the following Tuesday.

“On the subway ride to the airport we saw some break dancers perform some crazy cool tricks;” Montgomery said. “It was the perfect way to end the perfect trip.”