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.