D.C. Trip: An Overview

Hello again!

Sadly, I will be the first to admit that I know I went missing for quite some time. My apologies! I have spent most of the past week (well, three days I guess hardly amounts to "most" of the week) in Washington, D.C., with the eighth-graders for the eighth-grade D.C. trip! QUITE an experience, needless to say.

Yes, there is a LOT to discuss and a lot to share, but I'll save specifics for specific posts to come. Right now we are in dire need of an overview!

Categories: (drum role please) . . .  

• Worst Part: Waking up at 2 a.m. on Wednesday to make our flight.  
• Worst Part (part 2):  rushing through the White House tour as it was moved to 7 a.m. and ... let me tell you ... 7 a.m. is not "peak time" for eighth-grade interest.  When a tour revolves around self-started questioning, there might be a better time for students than 7 a.m. All I'm saying. More that 20 minutes inside said building would have been wonderful.
•  Most Unfortunate Part: Pouring rain during the Arlington Cemetery tour. So much was lost with people trying to squeeze into umbrellas and not seeing the beautiful scenery and all it had to offer.
• Most Surprising Part: Being privy to a hearing and seeing a 14-gun-shot salute during a burial at Arlington Cemetery.  
• Most Emotional Part: Visiting the Police Monument and watching a student lay a bouquet a flowers above his father's name. I cried. A lot.   
• Most Beautiful Part: Standing at Mt. Vernon in the backyard overlooking the Potomac River. Now if I only had a book and a blanket...
• Most Relaxing Part: Enjoying the outdoor sun for an hour on Friday, 11 a.m.
• Most Amazing Part: Standing atop the Newseum balcony, hearing sirens in the background and thinking it was just another ambulance, only to turn around and see the eight-car presidential entourage speeding down Pennsylvania Avenue!!!  
• Funniest Part: Having our ghost tour lady say that funeral homes used to call up the ice shops because they had dead bodies to preserve, except, instead of saying it that way she said they called up the ice shops saying, "they needed ice because they had a stiff one." Absolutely the wrong wording for an eighth-grade audience.

As basic overviews go, that's a pretty awesome synopsis of the overall experience. More specifics to come about places to visit, inside scoops, and my take on "tour" food.  :-)