It was Ellie’s turn to go to Washington, D.C., with her class. I actually really enjoy going, and I am grateful every year I am given the chance. I asked Ellie if she was okay with me going before volunteering. She said she was. I just requested not to be her group’s chaperone.
We had a small group of kids – less than 60 kids, I think. We boarded the bus at 6:30am and took off. Ellie with her friend, Harper, were somehow right in front of me! What luck!
We stopped at Pizza Hut for lunch, made it to Gettysburg by about 1:30.
Thankfully, even with the government shutdown, they were giving guided tours at this national park. The girls learned about the Civil War and the Battle at Gettysburg. They climbed the very tall fire tower and took pictures on top of Big Round Top. It ended up being a windy, but beautiful day.
After a massive buffet,
we headed to the night tour of various monuments in DC – FDR, Jefferson, and MLK Jr. These are not my favorite ones to see in the dark, but this is what time permitted us. Thankfully, the lights were on at FDR and we could see some things.
After a good night’s sleep, we met downstairs and had a breakfast buffet in our hotel. We left by about 8am to get to to our first stop. This year was a bit different. There was a government shutdown happening – a really uncooperative Congress was arguing over the budget – so all the Smithsonians were closed. Our tour company scheduled us a stop at Mount Vernon in place of those. I had never been here, so I found it interesting. We saw George Washington’s family tomb, the cemetery for slaves, the slave quarters, toured the house, and soaked in the view of the Potomac. It was beautiful.
From there, we headed to the Holocaust Museum. While this intrigues me every year, the political unrest in the U.S. right now painted this in a different light. It is amazing what can so quickly happen given a chance. How easily people can be taught to hate based on religion, race, skin color, eye color, country of origin, sexuality, and so many things that don’t really make that person loveable or detestable. And they certainly aren’t cause for the atrocious acts of violence that were showered on these groups. It is a hard, but necessary, place to visit.
The kids are usually starving for lunch at this point because it is almost 1pm and lunch at school happens at 10:10. We head to a mall food court and let them go. Then, we walk forever around Arlington Cemetery and watch the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. All of this makes me consider the lives that have been lost for causes we aren’t even aware about and sometimes didn’t even care about. The tragedy of war.
The day ends in a light-hearted and loud manner – at Medieval Times dinner show. My adult crew (Kelsey Rowley, Maddie Aumend, Jess Matz, and me) had fun watching the kids. And the kids always have a lot of fun cheering for their knight. Ellie and her table got a picture afterwards with their knight.
The drive back was LOOOOOOONG. We were caught in a traffic jam and did not make it back to the hotel until almost midnight. It made for a very short night.
The last day we souvenir shopped, went to the People’s House (a really neat mock White House experience), and visited numerous monuments.
Then, we headed home. This was the only snafu – we left without lunch and didn’t feed the kids until almost 2pm! I was very hungry. We made it home by about 7pm on Friday night. And I was thankful for the weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment