Day 4

We had to get up early today and get our bags down because we had a great day ahead of us; Even though everybody was tired, we were all excited because we were heading to New York City. Taking our bus allowed us to drive through Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and then we arrived to New York. We enjoyed shopping on Fifth Avenue for about an hour. Some of us walked through the Trump Towers where the show The Apprentice is filmed. Also, we bought pretzels and hotdogs from the famous New York street vendors. We then headed to the NBC studio for a tour. We started the tour with a 10 minute introduction about television. It brought back memories for most of the parents. Next, we went to the set of Nightly News, staring Brian Williams. It was in the middle of the floor, next to the MSN news room. The special effects that they use are amazing! Our next set was Jimmy Fallon’s set and we could not believe the size of it. It was super tiny! Next, we saw the Saturday Night Live set. The tour guides said that the sets are built in the Bronx and are brought over to the studios on Thursdays. We had the chance to see Tina Fay and Alec Baldwin from 30Rock. Top of the Rock was our next stop! You could see around the whole city of New York, but it was very chilly up there. It was a moment that I will never forget. We saw the Empire State Building from the distance and it felt like it was right next to us. The group then headed down to Broadway Street for Bubba Gumps for dinner and shopping. The kids had a great time walking into the stores searching for something that they had never seen before. They bought I <3 New York sweatshirts, shirts, coffee, make up, jewelry, sports gear, and picture frames. Our next appointment was The Broadway Musical, The Lion King. We sat in Row P, which was about 19 rows back. The whole production was wonderful! It was very lively. It was raining when we left Broadway and we ran to the bus. It was about 11:00 p.m. when we got to our next hotel, the Embassy Suites Meadowlands.

Day 3

We started the day with a delicious breakfast at the hotel. We had eggs, ham, French toast, muffins and potato. The Hotel L’ENFANT Plaza was a wonderful place to stay. We had to gather our suitcases and head to the bus for our last day in Washington. We had a busy day planned. Our first stop was the White House for a photo opportunity. We all thought that it would have been bigger than it looked. We went to the back side of the White House, because the front isn’t available to walk in front of. We were walking toward the bus and Bob our tour guide had found a beautiful hotel called The Willard. It was set up like the olden days. The front desk had little mail slots not computers. It was cool. Next we arrived at the National mall and walked through the front lawn. We had the opportunity to meet a capitol police officer and ask him questions. We then went to the Library of Congress. The detail of the building was breathtaking. We walked to the visitor center for the Capitol tour. Wow what a building. We had lunch under –ground that had a huge variety of yummy foods to choose from. We had a great opportunity that most people can’t or won’t do; we went to the Supreme Court steps and prayed for our Capitol, White house and Supreme Court. We left D.C and headed for Gettysburg. We arrived to the BATTLEFIELD. Our tour guide for the Gettysburg was Mark. He had a great sense of humor. He had 5 of our students participate in a battle. The students really enjoyed the re-enactment. We toured the area for about an hour. We dropped Mark our guide off at the gift shop and headed to Dobbins House Tavern. The dinner was tasty. We had the chance to go into the original underground rail road building that housed the hidden slaves who had managed to escape. We finished the evening with a little shopping in the gift shop at the tavern. We checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott. The rooms were nice, but some our girl rooms had stink bugs. The staff was very nice and moved the 2 groups. It all worked out.

Day 2

We had been woken up by the hotel front desk at around 7:00. We opened the curtains and the view was breathtaking. The sun was shining and reflected off the water. We needed to be ready for the day. We ate a yummy breakfast at the hotel. They served eggs, bacon, pancakes, fruit, muffins, potato fries. We then went to the bus to head to the Arlington National Cemetery. When we first arrived, I had chills that went up my spine. The 8^th graders were shocked when they saw all the graves and had a ton of questions for Bob our tour guide. We went to John and Jackie Kennedy grave, it was surrounded cement and granite and an eternal flame. We then walked up to the Arlington house. The house is currently being renovated, but we were allowed to tour inside. It was cool. Four of our students were chosen to lay a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  Megna, Abigail, Teddy and Hayden felt honored that had the opportunity to meet the guard and place the wreath on the tomb. Before the ceremony of the wreath laying we watched the changing of the guards. The guards are respected with highest honors due to their position.  The experience will never be forgotten. We traveled to Alexandria for lunch and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. It was a cute town. Most of the group went to an all you can eat pizza and salad bar and some went to have Thai food. The 8^th graders enjoyed homemade ice cream from a local shop. They then took a little snooze as we drove to Mount Vernon. The property at Mount Vernon was beautiful; the back east entrance was on the Potomac River. The home of George and Martha Washington had started out very small and as the years went by they added on. It had 10 rooms. The kitchen was on the side of the house not connected to the main house. It was set up so differently than our homes are. We saw the tombs of George and Martha. We walked around the property for 2 hours. It was surrounded by tons trees. We then headed back to town for supper and ate at the old country buffet. It was ok. I think the kids liked the frozen Slurpee machine and ice cream bar. We still had a few more sights to see. The Iwo Jima memorial was pretty neat. It had a group of 5 soldiers holding up a flag. From there we traveled over to the Jefferson Memorial. What a huge building with amazing detail. Our day had come to an end and Bob surprised us and took us to the Canadian Embassy.   Make sure you ask your students what happened. It was really shocking! It was back to the hotel to pack for our departure on day 3. We had a fun evening. The kids went to the gym and worked out with a mom and some kids just hung out and talked with some parents. We are so lucky to have such a great bunch of kids.

Day 1

What a great time we have had flying on Virgin American airlines. Our trip to Washington D.C. started off on a good note.  We went to a great buffet place called Magill’s for breakfast after Bob our tour guide meet us at the airport. The weather was wet and cold. Our 1^st place to visit was the Smithsonian Museums. We got into our groups and went our separate ways. We had the chance to go into a flight simulator and get turned up- side down. What a screaming fun time we had. Some groups walked around the area and were able to see other sights. Our group went to the holocaust museum. It was 4 floors of history regarding what had happened. When we started back to meet the rest of the group at the check in spot, it poured on us. We were soaked!  We met at our check in location and then went to the National Archives. The paintings around the top of the building inside where amazing. The doors to the national archives are 38 ½ feet tall, 13,000 pounds in weight per door. We then went out in the pouring cold rain to the Washington Monument up to the top! It was so neat to see The White House, The Capitol, and The Lincoln Memorial all at same time. We walked over to the World War II Memorial. It was beautiful. There was a huge waterfall in the middle of the memorial. It was surrounded by different columns representing each state. One side was Pacific and the other side was the Atlantic.  There were 4000 Gold stars on the wall. Each star represented 100 people that where killed.  It was then time to eat supper and our restaurant was Fuddruckers. The whole group had enjoyed dinner and ran back to the bus. It was about 7:00 and some of us had been up for 30+ hours. The students had been troopers! The chaperons also did great. We went to the Vietnam Memorial and saw the wall of names. The kids where touching the names on the wall, just wondering who they might be. One of our students found names that were the same as there mom or maternal grandmother. He wondered if they could have been related. Our next stop was the Lincoln memorial. Wow, most of us were in awe. It was bigger than life. We had one more stop before we could get to our hotel. We went to the Korean Memorial. The soldiers were standing as if they were in battle.  What a wonderful first day we had. Our Hotel was just a couple miles from the last site. We checked in and had a great night of rest.

Welcome to our 2011 Washington D.C. Blog

We are so excited that you will be with us as we experience the Washington D.C. trip. Please check back throughout the week. I am going to be updating as we go every chance I can. I hope that you will enjoy the blog.
Dionne