Mr Eklund

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Kenilworth Junior High School - DC Trip 

Day One - Sunday June 11, 2017 7:15am

 

My oh my, what an early start to the day. Pulling in to the KJHS parking lot at 1:30am to find the first bus of our three buses was already in front, as was Mr Bradley. It was nice to see a smiling face ready to start our journey. I unloaded multiple bags and boxes for the trip (thank goodness I don’t bring most of it home again!), parked the truck and got ready to load up. We tried to load up early to avoid confusing the groups and I guess we did okay, only three students had to dig their bags back out to wait for the second bus. Bus one was loaded and they pulled out almost as the third bus came pulling up. Since I had two boxes of packets I thought would be simplest to just put one box on each bus and split the group in half alphabetically. Hmmmmm, okay, maybe I needed to think that through a little more but it worked out and every was onboard early and we were off. I happened to be with the Southwest group and I have to say they did the best job of checking in our group at the ticket counter that I have ever experienced on this trip. We took off right on time as did the other flight, according to the text message from Mr Russo. We are currently in the air headed for Chicago so I think I will take the opportunity to read some Tom Clancy for a while (I sure miss reading for fun during the year) so I will write more after we jet through Chicago.

 

1:55pm

Changing planes in Chicago. So far so good. So far only picked up one dropped boarding pass and one dropped name tag. We are going to need a discussion about etiquette. Some of our group left an absolute mess on board the last airplane. I think they were expecting the maid to clean up after them. I have a feeling that will not be the case on the next flight…or on the bus the rest of the week. Time to hand out the boarding passes and get ready to board the next flight. Talk to you later.

 

11:00pm

Nearing the end of a very long but fun day. The flight from Chicago to Norfolk was fine and we did a much better job of keeping the plane presentable. This is only the second time we have flown into Norfolk. Unfortunately, they misplaced a bag, just like last time. The student and I went to the baggage service office to file a claim and….have you ever seen the movie Zootopia? Ya know that scene in the movie where the sloth is helping customers in the DMV office. Well, I think that guy now works at Southwest. A VERY nice man but the p…a….c…e was v…e…r….y ssssssssss…..llllllllll…….ooooooooo……wwwwww. Most of our group headed off to dinner leaving twelve of us to catch up. It was a beautiful drive. We could see three aircraft carriers docked in the harbor. Some of our students were shocked to learn we were driving underneath the Chesapeake Bay. The other group had time to do a little shopping in Colonial Williamsburg before we all met up for dinner. Traffic was a bit heavy in places but thank goodness we were not traveling the other direction. The other side of the highway was completely stopped due to a container slipping off a truck and backed up for miles and miles. Oh, but we did receive a call from Southwest. They did find the missing bag already. Apparently it arrived with us just got put someplace else temporarily instead of getting placed on the baggage carousel with the rest of the bags.

 

Tonight we tried out a brand new restaurant, well, new to us anyway. It is called Rocco’s and it was quite tasty! Puled pork BBQ sandwiches, fried chicken (breast pounded flat…yum), Mac n Cheese which was apparently “the bomb Mr E!”, green beans, cole slaw (wow, was this great cole slaw. I know, silly, but I am really picky when it comes to cole slaw and this stuff was really yummy) and brownies for dessert. Nobody left hungry for sure.

 

Next, it is on to our ghost tour. We had four guides this year and each of them was absolutely fantastic. They all were wonderful story tellers. I bopped from group to group to make sure everyone was getting a great experience and they truly were. Some of the students got pictures of ghosts and many people had orbs show up in their photos! The guides did remind the students NOT to annoy the spirits so they wouldn’t try to travel back to Petaluma with us. Hopefully we will not have any of them join us for the rest of the the trip. It will be interesting to see how they react in the daylight tomorrow. The stories seemed to be extra well told this year. The kids were hanging on every word. Especially when they heard about the Randolph house and the story of the two boys (4th grade age) who supposedly have been playing in the cemetery for the past 300 years. 

 

Tonight, we also have a new hotel. Its a Doubletree which meant fresh chocolate chip cookies when we checked in! Bed checks were little late but all the rooms were checked in by 11:15pm. Wake up call is at 6:30. Sorry, I was unable to log on to the internet this evening. Hopefully this will get posted Monday morning. Talk to you tomorrow.

 

2017 DC Trip Day Two

Monday June 12th - 7:20am

 

Slept Late, feel great! Wake up call wasn’t until 6:30am. Gonna be a hot one today. The forecast for Williamsburg is for 97 degrees today with high humidity. Only a couple rooms slept through their wake up calls and we woke them up with our knocks around seven. According to the hallway guards, we had a couple of rooms who stayed up until 2:30am. I saw one of those groups already and the lack of sleep shows already. Got a feeling they are going to be dragging…can’t wait to see how they are doing by dinnertime.

 

This morning our first stop is at Jamestown. This is where our country began in 1607. Well, sort of. The actual location for Jamestown is now in the middle of the river but they have rebuilt an accurate recreation of the original town. We start off with their first form of industry, the glassblowing. They made glass and they create many beautiful pieces today.

 

 

5:15pm

 

I forgot to mention, before we boarded the bus we were joined by two Worldstrides guides, Bob and Sandy are with us to guide us through the day. They were great. They describe everything as we are driving and then told the whole story about the business side of Jamestown at the glassblowing. From there we go over to the recreated Jamestown settlement. No talking trees or helpful raccoons here but just the real story of Pocahontas and the settlers of Jamestown. Here we have four separate guides who took us on a variety of tours. Each one is different based on how the guides want to tell the story. Like last night, I spent the day splitting my time among all of the groups and was happy to find that all four of them were fantastic. Your student’s story will probably vary but here are some of the highlights of what we saw. The center is divided up into four sections: the Indian village, the dock area, the fort and the museum. 

 

The Indian (and yes, they officially voted and asked to be called Indians) village is a recreation of a Powhatan Indian Village. There are docents everywhere dressed as Indians, demonstrating various facets of life such as cooking, tanning hides, playing games, growing food, carving canoes out of trees, smoking meat, making rope, etc. The docents are not just explaining but demonstrating as are the four guides. The is plenty of expertise to go around.

 

Down at the docks, there are replicas of two of the settlers three ships. The third is away at the moment to sail in some type of celebration but we are able to board the other two. The ships are the Discovery, the Godspeed and the Susan Constant. All three of them are about the size of our tour bus…or smaller. They set sail from England and took 144 days to arrive in America. Can you imagine being at sea on a small boat for about four and a half months? Doesn’t sound like fun to me. 

 

The settlers at Jamestown were not coming to settle like the Pilgrims but were coming simply to get rich. They were hoping to find gold or silver but didn’t have much luck with that. Worse, they spent so much time looking to get rich and so little time actually creating the things they needed to survive, such as food, that most of them died. It wasn’t until John Smith stepped up and took charge that things began to change. We toured the triangle shaped fort where we were able to watch a demonstration of how to shoot at old style musket. There were tours of the storehouse, the drying room were they cured the tobacco (this was where they really made their money…at least until the Cotton Gin was invented. We heard about the church where not only did they hold church services two or three times a day (that everyone was required to attend). The church also served as the meeting house for the government. The Captains quarters since he was the only one to have his own place. We also saw them mudding the outside of a home under construction using all original methods whenever possible.

 

The final section is the museum. You could easily spend an entire day in this museum. It is very well done. It depicts everything from the entire story showing life in Africa and England as well as all the events that lead to the Jamestown story. Wanna an accurate look, check out the movie A New World with Colin Farrell and Christopher Plummer. Entertaining and way more accurate than the Disney version of Pocahontas.

 

From Jamestown we head over to Colonial Williamsburg. James and Ray take us on the short scenic drive while Bob and Sandy describe everything we are seeing along the way. We have a little time before lunch so we stop first at the stocks and pillory. This is where people were locked with thread and arms or their fee locked up putting them on public display as punishment for whatever they have done wrong. Some of our group posed for photos before we continued our stroll down main street. Bob and Sandy are describing some of the places we are seeing as we make our way to lunch.

 

Lunch is a fairly authentic meal in the Kings Arms Tavern. This is like going to Medieval Times without the big show. The waiter tells us a lot about how taverns worked (like a combination restaurant, motel, and bar) and why they were so necessary (there were no hotels yet). The kids were surprised to find that everyone who was staying the night slept in the same rom and shared beds. The menu was whatever the cook felt like making that day. Today the menu consisted of fresh baked rolls (still hot out of the oven), Southern Fried Chicken, Fries, Green Beans and heavenly Ice Cream they churned themselves. 

 

 

After lunch we meet four new guides to take a tour of Williamsburg. Like this morning, the tour is different with each group (and like this morning I jumped around to all the groups to see how each guide was doing) and each group had a great guide once again. I have been doing this tour quite a while and I think this is the first time every single guide has been fantastic. We certainly hit town at the right time. All of the groups took a tour of the courthouse. This is not only where trials were held but also served as the center of government. Sure enough, the first group found me guilty of horse thievery once again. Good thing it wasn’t a real trial because the sentence for horse thievery is a hanging. The groups also toured sites such as the jail. The jail was for people awaiting trial. The didn’t usually sentence the guilty to jail. Most of the time, guilty people were sentenced to death. Another fun site was the brick making pit. Not only did we see how they were made but a few of us even had the opportunity to take our shoes off and stomp around in the mud to prepare it for being made into bricks. Some groups went into the wigmakers shop, the gunsmith, the carpenters, the armory, the church, the palace, (which wasn’t really a palace just the governors house), the Randolph House (site of the most ghost sightings), the College of William & Mary’s bookshop, an awesome candy store and a whole host of other sites. After a long hot tiring day it is time to bid farewell to Bob and Sandy and head towards dinner and DC. 

 

8:00pm

 

We are now on the buses headed towards the hotels. Dinner tonight was at the Golden Corral in Fredricksburg. Normally I am not a fan of buffets but this one is different. The food is good and the variety is amazing. They have all the usual suspects as well as top sirloin that is surprisingly good. I am pretty sure everyone found something they liked to eat tonight. Sorry to say I totally I blew the diet but wow, the carrot cake was amazing. Oh well, I’ve got over 21,000 steps in so far today. When we get to the hotel we will unload the bus, check into our rooms then he'd down to a conference room for a little get together. We will go over they, talk about tomorrow, play a little trivia, toss out some prizes and maybe even sing a little.

 

Well, we are getting to the best part of “To Hell and Back” so I think I will sign off for today and enjoy watching Audie Murphy when he earned the Congressional Medal of Honor.

 

 

2017 DC Trip Day Three 

Tuesday, June 13, 2017 - 11:27pm

 

Whew! What a day! It is already almost 11:30pm and I this is the first change I have had to sit down and even start todays notes. Chances are pretty good this will not get finished this evening but I will try to post what I have done before I drop from exhaustion.

 

The day started out with our drive into Washington DC. Traffic was heavy in places but much better than I have seen it in the past so we were able to meet our guides pretty close to on time. We are meeting in front (or is it the back now?) of the Old Post Office. It is not loner a post office, in fact it hasn’t been a post office for quite a while. It used to be an office building with a food court on the bottom floor that had seen better days. Last year we saw it undergoing a major remodel and today it is a Trump Hotel. Yes, that Trump hotel but they moved the entrance around to the other side so I guess it is in the back where we pick up Dale and Mary.

 

Our first stop is at the White House. We did not get invited to go on a tour of the inside but we did go out front to take a look at the front of the house. It sure is a beautiful home. Unfortunately we were not able to get too close. When we walked up Pennsylvania Avenue we noticed there were a lot of barricades ling the middle of the street. As we walked up, there was a group right up against the White House fence taking a group photo but shortly after we got there, the secret service kicked everyone off the sidewalk, out of the street and closed off the entire street. Everyone was relegated to the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. Oh well, We took a group photo from across the street but was still in front of the house.

 

From here, we walked back to the end of the block, headed towards the White House Visitors Center. I had never been here before. Frankly I had heard it was pretty tacky and not worth visiting but that is no longer the case. It was completely remodeled recently so we decided to check t out. What a great idea! This was a really nice site. It had a large model of the White house and the rest of the grounds as well as numerous exhibits depicting the life of the presidents and their families in the house. Very cool indeed. I thought this was a really good museum and plan to add it to our visitation list on trips in the future. Oh, one more thing about the tours of the White House. As we walked past the place where tour groups normally line up by the hundreds to wait in line for the tour I noticed there was virtually no one waiting. No line at all.Just a few people all the way up at the secret service ID checkpoint which is the last check before going through the X-ray machines. In other words, the tours my have been reinstated but they are definitely not giving large groups like ours an opportunity to go on the tour.

 

Next stop is the newest museum in town, the National Museum of African American History and Culture or the NMAAHC. Wow! Wow! Wow! This place is absolutely incredible! There were very long lines at security, it was very hot outside in the sun and it took forever to actually get in to the museum but it was well worth the wait. Everyone had a different experience and knowing it would be impossible to see everything in the time we had I wanted to make sure that I didn’t miss the exhibit I have been waiting for….Chuck Berry’s Guitar and Cherry Red Cadillac. I went straight to the information desk toes where they would be. I asked about the car and was told it was on the top floor (4th floor). I then asked about the car and she said “I believe it is on the 4th floor as well.” Sure enough, when you entered the music section of the cultural part of the fourth floor, right in front of you, dead center up on a display stand is the 1973 Cadillac ElDorado! And that is just the start! There were guitars from Check Berry and Bo Diddley, outfits from James Brown and George Clinton, Louis Armstrong’s trumpet, and even the Mothership from Parliament/Funkadelic. And this is just the start. There are so many items on display I couldn’t even begin to name them all. Every where you turn there is more cool stuff to see. There are exhibits on Jesse Owens, Tiger Woods, Jackie Robinson, the Olympics not to mention a whole section about Muhammad Ali to name just a few………………..

 

It is now 12:10am and I have been up since 5:00am and I am to tired to remain focused so I am posting this now and will try to finish this up later. 

 

>>> Tuesday continued….(7:35 am…Wednesday)

 

………………… of the many, many exhibits. They even have the Detroit Lions jacket that Eddie Murphy wore in the Beverly Hills Cop movies. There is an entire history section that walks you through the back experience in America that takes you through multiple floors of the building that most of us didn’t have a chance to experience due to the amount of time available. Like most of the museums here you could easily spend an entire day here and still not even come close to seeing it all. It is amazing how much stuff they have and they have done a great job of actually putting things out on display. It is going to take me years of visits to take this museum all in. Can’t wait for next year.

 

Time for lunch. Today we are dining in Union Station. This is an actual train station although a large part of it has been converted to shops and restaurants. Everyone had a choice of a variety of food choices ranging from Bojangles Southern Fried Chicken to Auntie Anne’s Pretzels and everything in between. Mr O, Mr Bradley and I tried the bourbon chicken with rice. Not bad. I know some of the students tried the Caramel Pretzel Chocolate Donut at Dunkin Donuts (cuz they told me I should try one) and they loved them. Hopefully that was a dessert and they had something a little more nutritious for the actual meal.

 

From Union Station we walked to the Capitol building. This walk is a little longer than the walk from the normal drop off spot but the climb up the hill is a lot less strenuous. With temperature in the mid to upper 90’s anything to make that walk easier was appreciated. On the way to the Capitol we passed by the Supreme Court building. We didn’t see any protestors out front today which was a nice change. Maybe it was too hot for them. Security getting in the Capitol's surprisingly quick today. ……

 

>>> Tuesday continued ….( 11:11pm Wednesday Night….sorry I am so behind…I have had a lot of stuff to take care off the past couple of days…not to mention…tired,,,no, exhausted)

 

Now where were we, oh yes, entering the Capitol Building. This was probably the quickest we ever entered through Capitol security and good thing because I scored a pretty cool event, I got us an appointment with our Congressman, Jared Huffman. ………….

 

>>>> Tuesday continued again ….. (7:55am Thursday morning….sorry I sat down to write last night this and ended up talking with parents way too late….hopefully I will get caught up during our bus rides today….)

 

OKAY, back to our story…Jared Huffman came and met with our group down at the visitors center of the Capitol building. I really like this guy. He is absolute wonderful with the students. He told us a little about himself and his job as a Congressman but he really shined when it came to answering questions. I was so proud of the great questions our students asked. They showed how much they have been paying attention to the world around them. And, it was impressive how he took the student’s questions seriously and gave thoughtful, complete answers on their level without talking down to them. He was very generous wth his time and didn’t talk to them like a politician. We all completely enjoyed his visit plus he brought with him an aide who was a graduate of Kenilworth and Casa who stayed after the representative let to talk with the students about how he made it from KJHS to the Capitol. The stunts had great questions for him as well. All of the adults were very pleased to see how well the students conducted themselves with these visits! Nicely done students.

 

Next it was time for a tour of the Capitol building itself. The renovations inside the Capitol dome have been completed and the place is looking more beautiful than ever. On the tour the students saw all kinds of cool sights including the original of the portrait that appears on the back of the $2 bills I gave them, the two statues representing California (Ronald Reagan and Father Junipero Serra), statues of numerous presidents and other famous Americans, including the newest statue of Rosa Parks. Oh, and I almost forgot, since the security line was so quick we even had time to tour the little Capitol museum that was added a few years ago. Next we were getting ready to go on our gallery visits ( we had passes for both the Senate and the House of Representatives).We couldn’t do the Senate because the Attorney General was testifying at that time. We also had a long wait ahead of us on the house side because a large group ahead of us had taken so long to get into the chamber that is was going to be a long wait for our turn. Unfortunately our visit with the Congressman and his aide, as well as a series of technical glitches on the tour ran a bit long, so we simply couldn’t stay for the long wait or we would miss our dinner appointment which meant we had to skip visiting the Gallery and leave the Capitol. 

 

Dinner tonight is at another new restaurant for us, Champs which is a Sports Bar & Grill. This is the one that we had to place our orders for ahead of time. I think everyone pretty much remembered what they had ordered but it quite funny when the waiter were walking around trying to figure out who ordered the quesadillas. It took us a few minutes to realize that no one was claiming the quesadillas because they were not called that on the order form. The were described as a couple tortillas with chicken and cheese. They turned out to be really good once we figured out what they were talking about. I think this one is a keeper.

 

After dinner, its memorial time. First stop is the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. This one features a 19 foot tall bronze sculpture of Jefferson standing in the center of a dome. It i styled to look like Jefferson’s home at Monticello which was styled after the Romans. This memorial is located on the edge of the reflection pool/tidal basin with Jefferson looking out towards the Washington Monument and the White House. The site was erected during the Franklin Roosevelt administration and it is said that Roosevelt wanted it placed there because he admired Jefferson so much that he wanted to be able to see him when he looked out the White House windows. Not sure if that is true but makes for a good story.

 

Speaking of FDR, his memorial is our next stop. This memorial tells quite a story, the story of FDR’s life. It is set up as a series of outdoor rooms that tell the progression of his life and in particular the four terms of his presidency. This memorial was rather controversial when it was built for a couple of reasons. One, FDR didn’t want a memorial in the first place but the bigger controversy was that at one point he is shown sitting in a wheelchair. This FDR definitely would not have wanted. He contracted polio when he was a young man so he could not walk however Americans were never allowed to see him in a wheelchair. Aides would prop him up or even carry him into position so much of the public didn’t even know he was handicapped. Since there was no television at the time they were able to pull this off. Today with televise, cell phones and cameras everywhere it would be nearly impossible to pull off this deception today. When they built the memorial disabled group insisted that he be shown in a true light and over the objections of his family were able to convince the builders of the memorial to show him i a wheelchair. That is just one aspect of a truly wonderful memorial. It is built out of craved chunks of red granite. They are neat and orderly until you get to the World War II years at which point they are in disarray to show the turmoil of the times. We don’t learn about FDR in junior high but he is one of those presidents that you really should learn more about on your own.

 

After FDR, we have one last stop at one of the newest memorials, the tribute to Dr Martin Luther King. This one is very simple yet very powerful. There is a huge stone sculpture of Dr King, again about 19 feet tall) It is cut to look like it is a slice taken out of a stone mountain. It makes for quite an imposing impression especially at night with the lights shining up at him. On the walls that spread out behind him on either side there a series of quotes from some of his speeches. Very elegant look and quite a nice visual. 

 

We say goodbye to our guides and head back to the hotel. One of the reasons I love this hotel is because we are able to have a meeting space down on the bottom floor where we can be noisy and not worry about bothering the other guests. Each evening when we get back form our day, we go downstairs to recap the day, talk about what is on tap for the following day, play some games, give out some prizes and just have a little fun time all together. At the end of a long day it is time to hit the sack. 

2017 DC Trip Day Four - Wednesday - June 14, 2017

Today we start off with something we had to postpone from yesterday, the group photo in front of the Capitol. We pick up our guides outside the Trump Hotel again and head over to the Grant Memorial for our photos. Very quickly we are off the bus, arranged by height, spread out on the steps of the memorial and smiling for the camera. They take multiple shoots of our group for what ultimately will become the 2017 version of that 10x20 photo that is hanging in my classroom. When the photos arrive, I will send out an Newsflash announcing they have arrived and set a date and time that I will be in hanging out in front of Kenilworth for a couple hours passing them out. Plan of stopping by and saying hello. It will be nice to hear your perspective about the trip after you have recovered from the exhaustion.

 

After the photo, we head over to Ford’s Theater. We’ve got the great tickets that allows us to visit the museum they have built underneath the theater before heading up into the theater itself. This is another very well done museum. There are many artifacts from President Lincoln’s last on Earth. Some of the items include the board John Wilkes Booth used to prop the booth’s door closed to prevent anyone from entering while he was awaiting his moment to fire the fatal shot. They also have the gun he used for that shot, the pillow soaked in Lincoln’s blood from the bed at the Peterson House, the playbills for the evening’s entertainment, details on theater conspirators out to kill that evening, and a whole host of other items related to Lincoln, Booth and that fateful day. There are also a number of short videos playing and interactive displays that really kept the students engaged.

 

From here we make our way upstairs to the actual theater. The Presidential Box is to the upper right about 11 feet about the stage. We were very fortunate to have an excellent National Parks Ranger to tell us the story about that fateful day. I have seen and heard this story a number of times (not to mention told the story to my classes) over the years and this ranger was one of the best I have seen in a long time. Not only did he know his stuff but he knew a lot of the detail that, for most people, is the thing that makes history interesting. Very well done.

 

After we leaving the theater we head over to the best discount souvenir shop in town. Not only did they have those hooded sweatshirts the kids can’t live without (despite the 95 degree / 90% humidity weather) but they also give all Worldstrides group a 20% discount! Score! Finally I picked up a tie dye shirt for tie dye day at Kenilworth! This is also where I got a call from the person at Worldstrides in charge of all the course leaders. As I had mentioned, one of my long time course leaders retired and we had a new one this year. From the moment she joined us yesterday it didn’t seem like a very good fit. If she were my student teacher I could “fix” her but with only a few days together on our trip I wanted all my peeps to have a fantastic trip the whole time so we decided she would be replaced at our next stop. She would probably work out fine with a different age group but as we all know junior high students are unique and she just didn’t fit in with our group.

 

Next stop is the Newseum. This is a museum that traces the history of news in radio, television and print. What a fantastic museum and there was a lot of new things to see this year. They had a section on the news during the lead up to the Revolutionary War that I wish I could bring back to KJHS. They also had a fabulous exhibit on the impact of using music to change the world. A film in this part traced the concert events that changed the world, starting with George Harrison and his concert for Bangladesh and working its way through Live Aid, Farm Aid, and the USA for Africa, and the Feed the World campaign to name just a few. , we meet up with our new Course Leader Carolyn. Other new items included an exhibit on the FBI, one of the guard towers from the Berlin Wall as well as big sections of the wall itself. There was also the 4-D movie, the green screen session to film a mock television news report, and the front section of newspapers for just about every historic event in modern history. I especially enjoyed the front page of the paper for every state plus about 50 other countries from around the world that were on display up on the top floor. They get a digital copy of todays paper from about 600 newspaper every single day. The students were on their own in this museum so you will have to check with them to see what they did specifically. Back on the bus I introduced everyone to their new course leader, Carolyn. Immediately it is apparent that she is going to work well with our junior high school, oooops, I mean our high school freshmen! Excellent move if I do say so myself. 

 

 

Next it is over to the Holocaust Museum. They have done a wonderful job of putting together a section of this museum designed especially for children. It is intense enough to get the lessons of the Holocaust across to the students without being too intense for most of our kids who are not quite ready to take on the impact of the full museum. Here the students see the events of 30’s and 40’s Germany though the eyes of a boy about their age. Even though this version is geared towards children it is still pretty intense. A number of students came out of the exhibit saying they were going to read the book. YES! Summer reading….PLEASE encourage your kids to read this summer.

 

After Daniel’s Story we make our way over to a new food choice for us, the food courts at L’Enfant Plaza. This is a mall type setting with two food courts and a number of dining choices. Most of the students choose Subway or Panda Express but the adults focused pretty much on the Mediterranean and Greek food choices. Personally, I had the Greek and it was quite good. They put the meat on the pita and you got to add toppings as you choose. This one looks like a keeper. Actually, all the new choices for food this year have turned out pretty good. As I mentioned at our meetings, food is probably the toughest part of planning the itinerary so it is always a welcome choice when the food choice turns out to be a good one.

 

After lunch, we head over to Arlington National Cemetery. Fortunately the weather has gotten a little bit better. Both the temperature and the humidity have dropped a little so the hike up the hill is not quite as intense. Both Dale and Carolyn stop the groups occasionally as we work our way to the John F Kennedy eternal flame, the Tomb of the Unknowns and the changing of the guard, not to mention Joe Luis, Howard Taft, Robert and Ted Kennedy as well as the second most visited gravesite of all, Audie L Murphy. Be sure to ask your student what this great American did to earn the Congressional Medal of Honor. I was very impressed with how respectful our group was during the entire ceremony! We have great students here at Kenilworth and they displayed their life skills tremendously. 

 

After the hike back down the hill it is time to eat again. This time it is at the Pentagon City Mall which is a regular big time mall with lots of food choices. Unfortunately we are on a bit of a time crunch if we want to get good seats for the Twilight Tattoo so everyone gets their meals to go. All of the adults were VERY impressed with how quickly everyone got their food and made it back to the bus in record time. Everyone eats their dinner on the way to Ft Myers, the site of tonights show. You can tell the adults are getting a bit tired since the jokes are really starting to fly. We are having so much fun!

 

The Twilight Tattoo is VERY different this evening. There is a threat of thunderstorms so the show has been moved indoors. They started doing this about a year or two ago. Prior to this they used to just cancel the show. That happened to us a couple times. Moving indoors means only about 1,000 out of the 3,500 people scheduled to attend the outdoor show will get to move inside. Fortunately, we made the list! As we filed inside it was very apparent we made the right call by taking our meals to go. Had we taken the time to eat in the Mall we would have definitely been sitting on the floor instead the old but nice seats in this arena. I am calling it an arena because its not quite a gym but does have kind of a gym feel but with lower ceilings, lots of stage lights mounted on the ceilings and a solid blue floor. As with the outdoor shows they start with rock n roll singers and Army jazz band. Usually they only play a few songs will the last of the crowd filters in to the show but tonight the played quite a few numbers. It appeared the they're stalling for time while waiting for some VIP’s arrive and it turned out to be worth the wait.

 

At the Tattoo tonight they celebrated the 242 birthday of the Army, they awarded a Distinguished Flyers Cross to the heirs of a hero from the First World War, and the swore in 35 brand new recruits into the United States Army. There was a number of big shots in attendance including the brand new Secretary of the Army (I think that was his title). One of the big shots gave a very moving speech about the shooting in DC this morning paying tribute to the men and women in police forces and first responders within the United States. There were quite a few standing ovations this evening.Very inspiring! As for the rest of the show, there were a number of the elements that are featured in the outside show, many altered a bit to fit the different venue. They still shot off the howitzers outside although the definitely nowhere near as loud. They did shoot a number of the guns inside, opening the big doors each time to tone down the echo (I assume). The had the Drum and Fife Corps, the Army Drill Team and the soldiers throughout the history of the army. A number of soldiers stopped to tell the audience their personal story and best of all, they still had the meet and greet after the show! Simply put, it was awesome!

 

Time to head back to the hotel and say goodnight Dale and goodbye to Carolyn (unfortunately she is already booked the rest of the week so we will have Dave on Thursday evening and Friday morning. We had a fun ride back to the hotel. We played some music (You are welcome Vince) and sang some songs and generally had a fun ride back to the hotel. As we rounded the last corner I hopped off the bus and did the unthinkable…I ran into Walmart to buy enough ice-cream for everyone to share during our wrap up meeting and trivia contest prize giveaway. Anyway you look at it, it was fantastic day.

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2017 DC Trip Day Five  -  Thursday  June 15, 2017

 

At breakfast this morning I was pleasantly surprised to see how many students came by to tell me home much they had enjoyed the Twilight Tattoo last night. I am so glad they enjoyed it as much as I thought they would! Moving the event indoors did make for some changes but it was just as awesome as ever. I am so glad we didn’t get cut from the invitation list.

 

 

This morning starts with a bit of a drive, going from Tysons Corner in Virginia to Baltimore in Maryland. We took an interesting route to get there. Instead of taking the freeway that circles around the edge of the city, James drives us right through the middle of DC. Since traffic into DC is fairly heavy I questioned why he was taking this route and he said traffic would be heavy all the way on the other route but it would only be heavy until we got about halfway through the city this direction. Sure enough, as soon as we made it about a third of the way though the city the traffic disappeared completely. Having James on our lead bus has just saved us a whole lot of time. Another reason why I love working with James, our lead bus driver, is he can always be counted on to miss a turn her or there. Never a big deal but always leads to a bit of fun. This morning was no exception. Missing a turn meant we got to see the main headquarters of Under Armor and a bunch of people standing on their front porches with their mouths hanging open as we cruised down a residential street. By the time we reached Ft. McHenry the whole bus was rolling with laughter!

 

Our first stop today is at Ft McHenry. This was a key battle site during the War of 1812. The fort guards the entrance to Baltimore Harbor which was a major trade and manufacturing center at the time. Our visit starts in the Gallery of the visitors center. Here there are a number of interactive displays showing how the battle played out and why it was so strategically important. It is also where we watch the introductory film that explains the battle and how it lead to the development of the Star Spangled Banner. I have been telling everyone about the great ending to this film but I could tell they weren’t quite convinced. It is a pretty decent film but what makes it so exciting is that near the end of the film, on the screen there is a view of the fort. As they begin to play our National Anthem, the screen rises and you find yourself looking out the window at the fort from the exact same position that had just been playing on the screen only now we are looking at the actual fort! Very inspiring indeed.

 

After watching the film we head out to tour the fort itself. Many of us go to watch the changing of the flag. Like they did at the time of the actual battle, they fly a smaller storm flag during the night then switching them in the day time with a much larger flag. They have a whole ceremony to do this including a park ranger playing a fife and a group of students portraying the soldiers involved in the rising. It was quite a special ceremony. After the flag raising we could tour the entire fort. I was excited when some of the students entering the powder magazine remembered us talking about it in class when the realized they were actually in that exact spot. Good thing no bombs were bursting today!

 

After touring the fort we went over to the inner harbor area where the students had a number of choices on how to spend their time before lunch. Some went on a tour of the USS Constellation and visited the Constellation gift shop. Others went to the Aquarium, some raced over to check outage the enormous Barnes & Noble Bookstore, some went on a tour of a ship or a submarine while other rented paddle boats to tool around the harbor for a while. You will have to ask your student what is was they choose to do.

For lunch, we are dining at the Chicago Uno Pizzeria and Grill. We have been to this restaurant in the past and had a great experience. I went in to check with the manager about which doors to use and where we would be sitting when he mentioned the burgers, chicken and turkey sandwiches were all ready. Wait, What? Burgers, Chicken an Turkey? Not Pizza? I never noticed that the order was for the Grill part of the name, not the Pizzeria part of the name. I had just assumed we were having pizza. Fortunately, the Burgers, Chicken and Turkey sliders were really good and we did get some veggie pizza’s for the vegetarians. They also had chips, soups and some quite tasty brownies for dessert. Despite not getting the promised pizza every seemed pretty happy with how good the lunch tasted.

 

Back on the buses we head back into Washington DC. No such luck on avoiding the traffic this time however. We had planned on visiting the three main Smithsonian Museums on the Mall this afternoon but as the clock ticked away while sitting in very heavy traffic we decided to cut the Air & Space Museum (and the 20 minute walk to the next one) and just visit the Natural History and the American History Museums which are located side-by-side today. We figured the Udvar-Hazy extension of the Air Space Museum that we will be visiting on Friday would have to suffice. 

 

The buses drop us off at the Natural History Museum. This is the science teacher’s nirvana. If you are in to rocks, gems, dinosaurs, bugs, animals, butterflies and pretty much anything occurring naturally in the word around us then this place is your jam. For most of us the Hope diamond is the highlight of this museum. 

 

Next door is the big daddy of all the Smithsonian museums, the American History Museum. The museum has tons and tons of cool exhibits. There is a huge steam locomotive (it took them 11 days to move it into the building), Fonzie’s jacket from the TV show Happy Days (this was a top ten show when I was in high school and most of the students had never heard of it…yeah, I feel old), the Star Spangled Banner (the actual big flag that Francis Scott Keyes saw when the switched this one with the smaller storm flag at Ft McHenry), an original Dumbo from the ride at Disneyland (OK, I am not that old…Disneyland did open before I was born), to such a wide variety of cool things to se that is impossible to even guess what your student was focused on during their tour.

 

Next, can you believe it is time t eat again already? This time we are trying another new one, a Corner Bakery. Actually we have been to one of these before when we were in Philadelphia last summer. I would compare it to Panera. The food was pretty good and they gave the students a fairly wide variety of choices for dinner. Their were choices of salads, pastas, paninis, and sandwiches that all came with a soup or salad and a most excellent chocolate chip cookie. 

 

We didn’t need guides for what we were doing up till now but after dinner we need to pick up our guides. We stop by the back of the Trump Tower again to pick up Dale and a new guide to replace Carolyn. (Carolyn was a great fill in yesterday but she had another group booked for today so we got Dave Murray instead. Fortunately Dave is free the next two days so he will be with us for the rest of our trip.) Tonight is a memorial night. Our first stop is the World War II Memorial. Sunken below ground level about halfway between the Lincoln and Washington Memorials so as not to impair the line of sight between those two memorials. the WWII is a beautiful site. There is a large fountain in the center, surrounded by columns representing each of the states and territories controlled by the US. On the Lincoln Monument side there is a wall of stars where each star reprints 100 American soldiers lost in the war. On the Washington Monument side there are a series of about 20 bronze reliefs that tell the story of the war from beginning to end. Dave gave the students a number of trivia assignments to look for while touring the memorial. I wonder how many found the “Kilroy Was Here”? Be sure to look that up if you didn’t hear the explanation from Dave or Dale.

 

For the next two monuments we split into separate groups before meeting up in the dark at the Lincoln Memorial. I stayed with Dave’s group and we went through the Korean War Memorial first. This memorial features 16 full size bronze statues that look like a patrol of soldiers walking through the rice paddies. Fourteen of them are army, one is air force and one is navy. Dave taught the students that the navy soldier was a medic (carrying his box of medical supplies) and the Air Force soldier is there to call in air support, in other words, were should the planes drop their bombs to help support the guys on the ground. There is also a long granite wall with pictures etched into the stone. Very nice way to honor those men, women and dogs who served in the Korean conflict. 

 

On the way over to the Vietnam Memorial we spy this wacky kid we had seen dancing at the Twilight Tattoo. Not much in the way of dancing skills but he sure made up for it with enthusiasm. Just like last night with the army band, he is jumping and twisting like crazy to some group playing finger symbols and drums to draw attention to whatever it was they were promoting or protesting ( I wasn’t sure which). The Vietnam Memorial is quite a moving site. Basically it is a long black granite wall (taller in the middle shorter on the ends) with the names of all those killed or reported missing during the war. There are a LOT of names carved into that Wall! In addition to the wall, there are only two other parts to this memorial. There are two statues, one depicting three soldiers on patrol together. The other is a tribute to the nurses wh tended to the wounded and dying. 

 

Next we all meet up at the Lincoln Memorial. Like the Jefferson and the MLK, the statue of Lincoln is also 19 feet tall. The only difference? He is 19 feet tall while sitting down. the others are a standing 19 feet. What a beautiful memorial. Not only is Lincoln an impressive site but when you turn around and look at the view it is simply stunning. Ahead of you, across the reflecting pool you are viewing the Washington Monument with the Capital building behind it. For this view alone it is worth making a trip to DC. It look seven better when the reflecting pool is full of water. Unfortunately they drain it earlier this week to clean and sanitize it. Apparently there was sometime of batch in the water that made the snails contaminated which resulted in over 80 ducks dying. Glad they are fixing it to protect future water fowl but it did impact our view tonight. 

 

Our final stop of the evening is over at the Albert Einstein Statue. Just across Constitution Avenue we make our way over to the Einstein Statue. This statue is so large that our entire group is able to climb onto him for a photo op. Speaking of photos, some of the mom’s on the trip have been taking lots of photos and the are planning post them online for all of us to view. I will let you know where and when you will be able to access them. Also, the professional group photo we took in front of the Capitol should be ready in a couple of weeks. I will send out a Newsflash to let you know when I will be at Kenilworth to pass them out. I usually come down to school and hang out for a couple hours to visit with whoever wants to stop by and chat about the trip. I will have the photos, some gifts from from our Congressman and from the Twilight Tattoo and possibly some other goodies as well. 

 

It is getting late so we have to head back to the hotel. We don’t want to get the drivers in trouble. It is against the law for them to drive more than a certain number of hours a day and we are getting near that cutoff time. Back at the hotel for a quick meeting about checking out and to go over details for Friday and its off to our rooms to pack and get some rest. We are all tired but looking forward to another big day on Friday.

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2017 DC Trip Day Six - Friday - June 16, 2017

 

The final day of a trip is always such a challenge. Packing up, realizing that you have more stuff to take home than you brought, worrying if you are going to forget something, remembering to put the stuff you need on the plane in your carryon bag and the stuff you can’t take through security in your checked bag. These are all challenges for adults used to dealing with these type things but an even bigger challenge for our young people who have had limited exposure to most of these things. We did check every room and I think we caught most of the items the students forgot somewhere along the way. Today was a little extra challenging because we added a stop this morning that we were to late for last night.

 

First we have to say goodbye to Cheryl. All the students met Cheryl but I am pretty sure they have no idea how much she did to make our trip wonderful experience. She was a huge help to me and the rest of our group. She had the hotel rooms all set up for us, made sure breakfast was ready every morning, made sure we got our wake up calls, helped us get a replacement for our Course Leader, took care of getting the broken door lock fixed, and in general helped turn our hotel stay into a wonderful experience. I have been doing this trip for over a dozen years and no on-site coordinator has come close to providing us so much help in the hotel. She definitely made my job easier which helped me to make your trip better. I just thought you should know that she was just one of a large number of people who worked their hardest to make this a great trip. Thank you Cheryl!

 

Once we have all the bags and people loaded on the buses say goodbye to Tyson’s Corner and head to our first stop. the Marine Corps Memorial. On the way we watch the welcome film for our second stop at Mount Vernon so we can have extra time to do other things once we get there but I am getting ahed of myself. First the Iwo Jima or Marine Corps Memorial. This memorial is a large statue depicting the seven soldiers who struggled together to rise the American Flag atop Mt Sirabachi (sp?) on the island of Iwo Jima during World War II. The sculpture is based on the very famous photograph of the flag going up. For those of you in my class you might have noticed I had a scaled down version of this sitting on the windowsill in my classroom. This memorial was surprisingly crowded considering how early it was which meant our bus seemed to be blocked in but never fear, James takes us offloading, up and over the median to get around the other buses and get us on our way.

 

Next stop is to pick up our guides. We are so busy laughing and joking about the “Just Tires” and “Tires & Batteries” stores that James ALMOST misses the turn to get the guides. Oh I love this guy. The joy and laughter that gets spread on these trips depends so much on our wonderful bus drivers. Even though this was Ray’s first time with our group he really fit in and should James or Tony ever not be available in the future Ray will be my go to replacement guy! By the way, I heard the second bus cheered for Dave at the end of their first evening together. I am so glad we were able to make a couple of switches to make sure our trip was the best it could possibly be. 

 

Once we have both our guides safely on board we head off towards George Washington’s home Mount Vernon. As with many of our stops, they have changed the entry a little bit and added a security checkpoint. Sad to say I think this just going to be a way of life in the future. Too bad that some bad apples have to create so much extra stress, work and worry for others. Once inside we head directly to the mansion for our tour appointment. 

 

George Washington’s home is quite an elaborate place. It is about 9,000 square feet but it didn’t start off that way. When he inherited the home it was about a third of the size a third of the home that is there now. Throughout his life George had sections added on to the original dwelling to add more rooms, as well as the dormers and cupola on the roof. He almost had to do this, especially as he grew older, because so many people came to visit which meant they would be staying there. Remember, hotels didn’t really exist so travelers frequently stayed at the homes of the people they were visiting. By the way, Martha was quite wealthy when she married George. In fact, she was one of the wealthiest women in the colony of Virginia, most of the wealth inherited when her previous husband passed away. One easy way you could tell the Washington’s had money was by the color of the paint on the walls. Brightly colored paint was extremely expensive and rooms don’t usually get painted much brighter than that green room when we first entered the house. I hope you saw the key to the Bastille hanging in the entryway. This was a gift from the Marquis de Lafayette and Mr Washington was extremely proud of this gift and the freedom it represented.

 

After touring the house we head over to the visitors center. We were disappointed to find out that the 4-D film theater was out of order as was the the film in the round. Bummer, two of the best parts of the museum out of action. Oh well, they did have a new exhibit on slavery at Mount Vernon and I learned lots of new things while touring this exhibit. The history I had learned always said that Washington freed his slaves in his will and technically that was true he did free HIS slaves, he didn’t free all their slaves. When they married George already owned 10 slaves while Martha owned 80. When he died the Washington’s owned 316 slaves. According the the trust from Martha’s first husband, George and Martha were not allowed to sell all the slaves because technically many of them were owned by the grandchildren of the first husband (actually the children but since they were dead the property, i.e. the slaves, passed on to the grandchildren.) Plus, the slaves he could set free were not allowed to gain their freedom until after Martha died. Since Martha didn’t want these slaves that were just waiting for her to die to get any ideas about speeding up the process she set them free herself. I am not sure of the exact number of slaves that were given their freedom but it definitely wasn’t all of them. Despite the fact that the two movies were to of order there were still a lot of other exhibits to check out not to mention some pretty awesome shopping. Overall, I think just about everyone throughly enjoyed this site. 

 

Time to head for the buses. As I mentioned in the meeting, finding a restaurant for lunch on Mt Vernon has been difficult to say the least so this year we tried something new. We had Firehouse submarine sandwiches delivered to the bus. I don’t think we have a Firehouse Subs near us but I have been to one before and their sandwiches were pretty good. This turned out to be a pretty good idea. There was a choice of Ham, Turkey or Veggie sandwich (orders were placed earlier in the week) along with a bag of chips, a Rice Krispie treat and a bottle of water. Not too bad and definitely better than a couple of the other options we have tried in the past. The other benefit is we can eat on the bus as we make our way to the our last adventure of the week, the Udzar-Hazy extension of the Air & Space Museum at Dulles Airport.

 

As we make our way there we bid farewell to Dale and Dave. We only had Dave for a short time but he turned out to be a great find. It was so nice to work with someone who obviously loved kids. We will definitely keep him in mind for future trips. We leave Dave at the Metro Station. The other bus drops Dale off at Reagan National Airport for her flight back home to Wisconsin. Thank goodness we had Dale this year. She really helped us overcome our Course Leader issues and truly made this trip special for us all. Best of all, she already has us on her calendar for next year! Now we just have to see if Dave is going to be available as well.

 

For the final stop on our trip we get to tour a fantastic air museum. As part of the Smithsonian Museum system, the Udvar-Hazy has a vast array of aircraft to check out. There are probably more than a 100 planes in the hanger but the highlights are probably a Space Shuttle that actually made multiple trips into space, a Concorde Supersonic Transport, a Lockheed SR-71 spy plane, a B-17 Bomber, and the Enola Gay (the plane that dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II) to name just a few. If you like planes, this place is for you. There is even a control tower where you can go up and watch the happening of Dulles Airport and listen to their control tower guiding traffic on the ground and into the sky around the airport. Plus a bonus, as we were about to pull out of the parking spot we were buzzed by a fighter jet making a loop to land on the runway closest to the museum. What a cool scene.

 

Sad to say, this marks the end of our time in DC. The buses take us around to the main terminals where we have to say goodbye to Ray and James. Our drivers are the best, not only are they the greatest at making sure we are safe and get to where we need to be as close and as quick as possible but they are genuinely great people to be around. James and Ray were fantastic. James is even driving a couple tours in California this year and is hoping to visit Kenilworth because he enjoys hanging with our students and staff so much every year! He is truly one of a kind and I am so glad he’s made us a priority in his schedule!

 

At the airport, it is the usual Friday night stress-a-thon although it is quite a bitt more stressful for the Delta group than the United group. The United flight is right on time and they are using a brand new Boeing 777. We are onboard for only its fourth passenger carrying flight. Very nice. Things are not so smooth over at the Delta Flights. Their first flight is running late and they are worried about making their connections. Knowing this might be an issue, back up reservations were made for a flight later in the evening. Unfortunately this means there are two flights to the same destination on the same day in the same reservation. As a result the computer has problems issuing boarding passes. The is a problem in Dulles which doesn't get entirely fixed before they have to depart so it also turns out to be a problem when they make their connection in Minneapolis. There is another problem when they arrive in Minneapolis as well, the two gates are a looooong way apart in two different terminals. The entire group has to hustle from one gate to the next plus they still need boarding passes. Fortunately everyone makes it and they wing there way West in such a timely fashion that the bus wasn’t ready for them. The flight arrives about a half hour early but the bus arrives about a half our late. Despite that little snafu at the end of the trip I think everyone had a pretty good trip and we made it home safely.

 

I hope you enjoyed the journey. Thank you very much to everyone who donated money to use for tips. Your generosity allowed me to leave gratuities for the guides that led us on the Ghost Tour in Williamsburg, The guides that showed us through Jamestown, Sandy and Bob who were with us throughout the day in Williamsburg as well as the four extra tour guides that lead the afternoon tour. I also presented tips and thank you cards to Mahlon (that first night bus driver), Ray and James as well as our On-Site Coordinator Cheryl (who helped us far more than you know) and our Course Leaders Carolyn, Dave and most of all Dale. The tip money that would've gone to Mary ended up being added to the tips for Ray, Dale and Cheryl for all they did to help us get a replacement leader and make sure our trip stayed upbeat and positive.

 

Finally I would like to say thank you to all of you for joining me on this adventure. I hope you had fun, learned something, developed a better understanding of our government, of our country, of how to travel of how to get along with others and most of all a better understanding of yourselves. Be sure to thank your parents for letting you go on this trip and I say letting go on purpose. As you grow up it is an exciting time but it is also a difficult time for mom and dad because as you become more independent they start to feel left out. Remember to keep them in your inner circle because as exciting as the rest of the world can be, as Dorothy says in the Wizard of Oz, “There’s no place like home.” Welcome home!