AGENDA:
Friday/Saturday
- 6:30 PM meet at Hewes
- Take bus to airport; flight leaves at 10:00 PM
- 6:30 am, arrive in Baltimore--no sleep sitting up straight, exhausted
- Breakfast at Magill's--I like the eggs and coffee, kids like deep fried bacon
- US Air Force Memorial, 911 Pentagon Memorial--very moving
- Museum of American History--saw the Star Spangled Banner and an old train
- Lunch at Reagan International Trade Center
- Mt. Vernon--take tour of George Washington's house and farm. Rooms are being restored one at a time to original look. We spent a lot of time in the threshing barn.
- Drive around Alexandria
- Old Country Buffet
- Iwo Jima Memorial
- 9:30 finally check in to hotel!
Sunday
- 5:15 wake up call!
- Bus ride to Gettysburg
- Breakfast--Pike's eggs were dry.
- Tour Gettysburg museum and battlefield--we got to go up in one of the towers this time, at this point it started raining but we forged on. We got to walk all around Little Round Top.
- Lunch at McDonald's -not as bad as expected, salads were good! Kids mostly ordered french fries, shakes, and chicken nuggets.
- Bus ride back to DC, tour Arlington--still raining lightly which makes the flowers beautiful and mood somber. Kids get flowers to lay on graves in section 60. Walk around some more, wait for changing of the guards only to realize it changes once an hour instead of 1/2 hour, even so, the kids behaved themselves and were absolutely quiet! At that point (5:00), the cemetery closed and we had to make our way out. We did lose one student, but she was found shortly after.
- 7:00 Dinner at Carmine's--spaghetti, salad, and bread. It was delicious!
- Lincoln Memorial
- Walk around Kennedy Center--this building is enormous and the view from the deck is breathtaking.
- Take metro and the world's second largest escalator back to hotel (9:30).
Monday
- Sleep in 'till 6:30!
- Breakfast at hotel--best breakfast yet!
- World War II memorial; Korean Memorial; Vietnam Memorial; Einstein Statue
- National Archives--see Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, the Constitution
- Bureau of Engraving and Printing--see money being printed--the joke was... A student asked if it cost money to go in and one of the chaperons remarked "No, just tell them you're poor and they'll print off some money and just give it to you, but if you're in the one percent, you have to give them your wallet and you don't get it back."
- Lunch at Union Station
- Capitol Hill--the bus dropped us off at bottom of hill and as we walked up towards the capital, we began to see some protesters who completely engaged the students' attention. They were protesting the rights of infants not to be circumcised. Freedom of Speech at its best.
- Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial--was not super impressed by this new memorial--was expecting emphasis on MLK's desire for peace and his "I have a dream" speech, but instead there were quotes which were were not actual quotes, but paraphrases.
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial--last time I went it was really warm this day and the kids had a great time splashing around in the water falls, but this time it was very cold so it was harder to enjoy. It is still very beautiful and peaceful, though.
- Jefferson Memorial
- Dinner at Sizzling Express--I still like this place because of its variety of lettuce, but it did not seem to be popular with the students or Mr. Domokos. I find this confusing as the kids get the same dinner every time: macaroni and cheese, pizza, chicken nuggets.
- Georgetown DC Cupcakes--by this time it is super cold. We stand in line for at least 30 minutes to get a cupcake--not worth it in my opinion! Mike is freezing as he has no liner in his jacket so is forced to wrap himself in my princess blanket. This leads to interesting discussion with students who are prompted to ask if he has a granddaughter... LOL! After getting cupcakes, we walk across bridge to our hotel--I run across because I am FREEZING.
- 10:30 arrive at Marriott.
Tuesday
- Sleep in again 'till 6:30! It's the last day, so we have to pack.
- Breakfast in hotel, yum!
- Go to souvenir shop across from Ford's Theater.
- Group photo in front of Capitol--no protesters this time and it is super cold!
- Drive through Embassy Row which is a lot like international level fraternities
- National Cathedral
- This is where we split off from group going on to New York.
- National Zoo--not super impressive especially compared to San Diego Zoo, but we do get to see the giant panda eating bamboo, rubbing his back, rolling and walking around, and we did see cheetahs walking around and even heard one meow!
- Lunch at McDonald's
- Udvar Hazy Center--Air and Space Museum--Mike is like a little kid in a candy shop at this museum! There are planes everywhere--on the ground small ones under big ones, and even more planes suspended from the ceiling It is quite impressive. You can walk around on ground level, or look at them from second and third levels. We got to see a real space shuttle--the Discovery! And we saw Apollo 13, Gemini (we have a picture of the Gemini taken in space which is signed by the astronauts!), and the Enola Gay which is the plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. We only had about an hour there, but we could have stayed several!
- Drive to airport and depart Dulles at 5:30.
- Once we were home, all 8 girls' parents were waiting in the Hewes parking lot, so we did not have to wait around. Yay! (There were 72 other kids and 6 other chaperons who went on to NY.)
