After a hearty breakfast at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville, Pride members had the morning to themselves to explore the city. 

Museums were popular destinations for many members.  

Makira Wage, Autumn Rathjens, Sophie Holmberg and her family spent the morning at the Museum of Natural History. As a history major, Holmberg has a list of museums she wants to visit in her lifetime and was finally able to check this one off her bucket list. As for Rathjens, dinosaurs were her main motivation for going to the museum.

“I really like drawing in my free time and I always like being able to take my own photo references,” Rathjens said. “It gives me inspiration on what I’m going to draw.”

Aaron Ragsdale, assistant director of the Pride, also went to the Museum of Natural History Museum with his wife, Ashley, son Harrison (9) and daughter Olivia (14). 

“My nine-year-old really likes sharks … and they have a shark exhibit going,” he said. 

Miranda Wangler, Jack Derickson, Julia Steffensen and Will Kessler hit up the Museum of Modern Art in the afternoon. Ben Connor, a South Dakota State University junior who is not in the band, went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with his family. Connor’s sister, Abby, is a sophomore on the color guard.  

“I have always wanted to see the Metropolitan Museum of Art because of the iconic part it plays in pop culture and history,” Connor said. “I spent three hours in the museum and barely made it through a quarter of it. We saw great works of Egyptian history, American sculptures, European arts and medieval armor.”

Kevin Kessler, director of athletic bands for the Pride, said he and his family also went to The Met during their morning outing.

Other popular locations were Central Park, the New York Library, the Winter Village Farmer’s Market, ice skating in Rockefeller Plaza and the “Friends” apartment in Greenwich Village.

“I think we had a pretty solid plan of just going wherever the wind took us,” Andrew Deaver, a senior trombone player, said. “We started at Central Park, got some coffee and walked through there. One of our professors recommended the Winter Village so we went through there and tried a bunch of different types of food. We tried genuine New York bagels.” 

Unfortunately, navigating the big city wasn’t easy for some. Mercedes Lodmell, a senior alto saxophone player, said her and her friend got lost at least four times trying to get to Central Park from the hotel. They took advantage of the detour and explored the shops on 5th Avenue. 

“They have like insanely huge everything,” Lodmell said. “There was a four-story H&M, the Nike store has like five stories. Then we went to a really good deli. We got some pastries, and then we both got different sandwiches and swapped half of them so we could both try it, so that was fun.”

At 3 p.m., all band members and their families met at Rockefeller Center to visit the Top of the Rock. Everyone spent a few hours viewing the city from the 70th floor, perused the gift shops, then hopped on the subway for dinner at La Nonna in Little Italy. 

Kessler said everything has been running smoothly since students landed in New York yesterday. 

“In regard to getting everyone checked in to the hotel and departing from the Sioux Falls airport, everything went very, very well,” he said.

On the itinerary for tomorrow is Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes.

“We’re excited to see the Statue of Liberty,” Ragsdale said. “I think taking in the 9/11 Memorial is always impactful and important for us to do. I don’t know if excited is the right word for that, but I’m looking forward to it.”

Stay tuned for continued coverage of the Pride’s New York trip and follow along our social media for updates and photos throughout the day.