2023 DC Trip Blog Day Six

 

Well, today sure started off interestingly.  I never reset the alarm on my phone so I woke up 15 minutes before the wake up calls were due to arrive.  Shortly after I got out of bed my phone     started chiming away. It seems a construction crew on the highway that ran in front of the hotel had broken a water main. As a result -  the hotel did not have any water.  Let me repeat that.  There is NO water in the hotel this morning.  No water to brush your teeth. No water to use the toilet. No water to take a shower.  No water to comb your hair. All I had was about a half a cup of water from the night before. 

 

Okay, this is probably not going to go well.  I got dressed and noticed, like yesterday, I never received a wake up call.  Just great, no water and no wake up calls! Great way to start the day. Ugh! I was about to start calling every one of our room when there was a knock on the door.  It was the Worldstrides person at the hotel with bottles of water that she was going to deliver to each person on our trip. A single bottle of water doesn’t make up for a lack of a shower this morning but at least everyone could brush their teeth. Also, she would notify everyone and I would not have to call every room. Hey, ya gotta take the small victories when you can find them. 

 

I packed up and headed downstairs with my luggage to breakfast which was supposed to be in the same room as our meeting last night. I opened the door and there was no one inside.  That’s okay since I am super early but then I looked around.  Not only was there no one inside but the room looked exactly as we left it last night…including the box of ice cream wrappers we had left behind. Uh Oh…does this mean no breakfast because there is no water?  Fortunately, it does not.  They had just moved us to the main restaurant.

 

The last day of any trip is always a bit interesting watching the zombies, er, I mean the students  filter in to breakfast but today was even more so. Lots of concerned looks and questions about the water but they handled things relatively well. I mentioned there were a number of nice, clean bathrooms right where we get off the bus in Philadelphia. Despite the water issues and the lack of wake up calls (about half of us didn’t receive the calls) everyone was down on time and we load up the bus, and are ready to go but we have a problem.  

 

A large number of students sitting in the back of Bus #1 had left a horrible mess the night before. There is gum and candy stuck to the floor. Wrappers, trash and who knows what else all over the back section of the bus. Tony has been one of my drivers since 2005 and I have never seen him angry. He is always happy and smiling and never has a cross word to say but today he is not only very upset but he is very disappointed. He was hurt that some of us would show so little respect for him, his motor coach and frankly, ourselves. If you would like write an apology note to Tony, I will make sure he gets it. By the way, I put an additional $ 100 on my own in with the thank you card to try and make up the extra work he had to do this morning because of us. 

 

Finally we are on the road, headed into Philadelphia, ready to start the last day of our journey.  First stop, the bathrooms at our drop off point, the Constitution Center.  As we rounded the corner,  I knew we were in trouble. There was construction and all of the bathrooms were blocked off and closed.  As we got off the bus our guides started laying out the plans for our day and were none to pleased when I insisted that our first stop had the be a bathroom. 

 

At first they said no bathrooms would be open for another hour. It took them a few minutes to grasp the seriousness of the situation but eventually we headed towards some bathrooms in a mini mall a few blocks away.  Than goodness there are coffee shops in this place so they open super early. After a pit stop we are ready to start our tour of old Philadelphia.  Our first stop is Independence Hall.  Well that is what we call it today, anyway.

This building is divided into two sections, the courthouse and the meeting house. First we check out the Courthouse Side. Our decent is really fun and also very knowledgeable.  Since this was originally a British courtroom before the revolution and an American Courtroom under the Articles of Confederation and later the Constitution, there were quite a few differences.  The most obvious of which was the “cage” the accused had to stand into face the jury for the entirety of the British Trial.  In a trial under the Constitution, the accused gets to sit at a table with his lawyers, not undergoing the constant scrutiny of the people who would ultimately decide their fate. 

 

Next we cross the lobby to the meeting hall.  This is the actual location where they came up with the declaration of independence, signed the document (that painting on the back of the $2 bill) as well as hammered out the details for the United States Constitution.  I pretty special room in our country’s history and we were there today.  

 

While were inside it decided to start raining.  We got a bit wet as we headed over to check out the Liberty Bell. It’s funny. The Liberty Bell is quite famous almost as much for being rung to let the citizens and country know that we had gain our freedom as it is for being improperly made.  The reason it has a big crazy in it is because the metal was not forged and cooled at the proper temperatures which made the metal brittle, thus causing it to crack.

 

Back outside and into the rain we go. This time we are headed for the Supreme Court. Located right next to Independence Hall, this court forms the third part of that balance of power created within the United States government.  They hear mostly appeals cased, cases involving other countries, disputes between states and acts by Congress or the President that violate the US Constitution

 

Once again, it is back out into the rain. We are on our way to Ben Franklin’s Print Shop.  This was fun spot.  Back when I was in junior high, I actually took print shop as one of my electives (I know…I am old). I  enjoyed watching the students as they started to realize how much work that was involved just to print a simple document. A couple of them couldn’t believe that you had to take a little piece of metal out of the box for every single letter, symbol, number, or even a space but even worse you had to put every piece back in it proper location in the boxes after you had made the prints.  Heaven forbid someone come ask for more copies after you had taken the type apart already.  The best part of this spot though was the mere fact that the students curiosity and wonder was engaged and they were completely involved in the lesson as being taught by the docents in the print shop! One of the best stops of the day.

 

Back out into the rain and we go over to the archeological dig over Ben Franklins cellar and privy (out house)  This may have been interesting but right then the skies opened up and we saw our first lightning of the day.  It was decided to head back to the Constitution center and lunch a little early because the weather is really looking bad now.  On the way, we stop at Ben Franklins tomb.  So many people over the years wanted to stop and pay their respects to Mr. Franklin that they have torn out a section of the big brick wall and replaced that section with wrought iron bars so you can look inside the cemetery without actually going onto the grounds.

 

We continue in to the Constitution Center and now the skies really open up.  Thunder, Lightening, wind and completely black skies.  It is looking scary and for good reason, we receive word of a tornado warning.  Now we have to stay inside even though it is time for lunch. Today we are having boxed lunches delivered by Potbelly Sandwiches.  The original plan was to have a picnic lunch on the lawn outside. Obviously that is no longer an option.  We could eat on the bus but after last night I am certainly not going to even ask Tony to let us do that. The Constitution Center has a lunch room for school groups on field trips but they tell the guides we cannot use it.  There is a restaurant that doesn’t allow people to bring in outside food who could see how horrible the weather was so They tell the guides we are welcome but they can only seat about half of us. Plus Potbelly’s is running late, very late.  As a result we just hang out in the lobby of the Constitution Center. Eventually they come over and invite us into the school group lunchroom.  I guess you can only take a hundred noisy eighth graders screaming with every bolt of lightning for so long,  Eventually the sandwiches arrive and we enjoyed a tasty lunch of ham, turkey or veggie sandwiches or possibly one of the Cobb Salads they threw in as a bonus.

 

After lunch we get to go into the Constitution Center for our actual appointment time.  We start off in Statuary Hall. This is a pretty cool thing to check out.  The room is full of full size statues of our founding fathers.  The are spaced apart enough that there is plenty of room to get a photo with any of your favorites.  Of course Alexander Hamilton was the favorite but I also saw students taking pictures with George Washington at 6’2” who looks like a giant next to 5’3 James Madison. Ben Franklin was the only founder who was sitting but maybe he should have offered his chair to Gouvernor Morris with his peg leg.

 

Next it is time for the “film/live action” experience.  This was a very interesting presentation. The “screen” was all over the place.  Things were projected on the floor in the center of a room with the viewers seated in a series of terraces looking down. Images were also projected on screens that circled the room above everyones head. There was even a 3D four sided semi-translucent white screen that came down from the ceiling, surrounding an actress who performed a monologue from the center of the room for nearly the entire show.  She did a great job of bringing the Constitution alive.  Once the presentation concluded the students had their choice of many different interactive experiences.  They could pretend to be the president addressing reporters at a press conference. They could go into a voting booth and cast a ballot. Or choose from a whole host of other ways they had set up to bring the Constitution to life. We finish up with a bit of shopping in the gift shop.  This is another nice one with lots to of Constitution related items.  A number of us bought dry shirts and dry socks now that the sun is finally shining. 

 

We still have one more stop but since it is on our way to the airport so we say farewell to our guides for the day and head towards the Rocky Stairs.  This is always a fun stop.  Its very crowded at the statue today with a huge line waiting to take a photo with Rocky Balboa with his arms raised in victory. I am not sure how many were willing to wait in that line but a lot of students re-enacted the run up the stairs of the Philadelphia Art Museum . There were even some adults we tried to repeat Rocky’s victory dance at the top of the stairs. (something tells me the video of that will be making the rounds real soon.)

 

After a wonderful week it is time to head to the airport for our flight home.   As always, James and Tony have kept us safe and got us to where we needed to be when we needed to be there. We left them both with the thank you notes you signed as well as the rest of the cash that you donated for tips.  After hug goodbye we make our way through the typical airport frenzy complete with a gate change to another terminal. As I write this we have about an hour of flight time left before we reach SFO.

 

Before I say goodbye, there are a few housekeeping items I would like to mention. The group photos we took on the steps of the capitol should arrive something in the next week or so.  As soon as I can I will send out an email to let you know when I will be out in front of school to pass them out.  If you possibly can please stop by to get yours.  They were included in the price of your trip But it is way to costly to mail them. I would love to have a chat with you about your experiences on the trip.  If I fronted you the money to pay for your luggage, if you have any tip money you would like to contribute. Any apology letters or thank you notes you would like me to forward for you you can bring these items on photo pick up day as well.  I will make sure everything gets to right person.  Also, if you happen to know a seventh grader who is not signed up yet, tell them about your trip.  I still have plenty of room for 2024. Oh and by the way, Parents, I would love to have you join me again as well.  Its not often that I have been lucky enough to share this experience with such a fantastic group of parents.  Thank you so much. 

 

Well, I guess that about does it for this year’s trip.  I want to thank you for joining me on this journey.  I hope you enjoyed the experience as well as gained lot of knowledge and appreciation for this wonderful country. To paraphrase Ella, always bring your curiosity with you wherever you go and will always maintain a fresh perspective on life. Have a wonderful summer and I wish you all the best as you begin high school.  Be sure to get involved. EVERYONE I know who had an enjoyable experience in high school got involved.  Go to the dances. Join some clubs. Play a sport. Attend the plays. Run for student government. In short, don’t just sit there, get up and do something.    I promise, you will be glad you did.  

Take care.  Good luck and farewell.

Mr Eklund