Mr Eklund

2014 Washington DC Trip

SUMMER 2014 WASHINGTON DC TRIP

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2014 Washington DC Trip – Day One - Sunday June 8th

Currently at 37,000 feet above Indiana on the way to Norfolk.

A very early start today but the school cut us a break, the lights were on in the parking lot. I believe this was the first time that has ever happened. Sure made it easier to load up. All three buses were lined up on Riesling just waiting their turn to pick us up. The first bus pulled up and it was huge, probably sat over 60 people. The 25 people traveling on the first set of flights loaded up and were gone in about fifteen minutes. Smooth start. Yeah! 

The next group is our biggie with 50 people. Most have arrived before the second bus pulls up. This bus holds 49 people. Hmmmm, might have switch the buses considering they knew the headcount ahead of time…just sayin’. It works out though because the one student we were waiting for thought the flight was tomorrow and after we woke them up decided to drive down and meet us at the airport. The CHP must have been getting donuts because the over sleepers beat the bus to the airport. Check in went smooth for us (except the temporary filling that fell out of my tooth as we approached the counter….ah, the joys of getting old.) We than had a truly San Francisco experience, while sitting on the plane about to push back from the gate we had an earthquake. It felt like somebody was slamming the baggage section door really hard while they started to push the plane back but since were didn’t continue to move I guess we believe the earthquake story. The flight to Chicago was pretty smooth until we were on approach to the airport. There was a bit of windy wing wobbling as we were on approach but we slammed down just fine. The connecting gate is a bit of a walk but in the same terminal and we are now in the air on the way to Norfolk, Virginia…in another completely full airplane. So far only had to pick up three dropped boarding passes, one info packet left in a bathroom and one wallet left at Peet’s Coffee. Life lessons in responsibility are part of the bonus plan, no extra charge.

I am assuming that bus number three got off okay. We will know in about an hour and a half when I can turn my phone back on. Today groups one and three will be meeting up in Richmond, Virginia where they will board a bus to meet up with our group in Williamsburg, which is located about halfway in between Richmond and Norfolk. The dinner tonight will be at a different location than was on our schedule. It seems the student restaurant at the College of William and Mary has decided to close at 5:30pm today so we will be going to a new restaurant tonight instead. Have not been to this one before but according to our rep at Worldstrides the reviews have been good. The bumpy landing in Chicago is nowhere near as bumpy as our flight out. The pilot just came on and said its gonna be bumpy like this the rest of the way to Norfolk so rather than retype every word about five times I think I will call it a day until we are on the ground. I will be back with more later but its time to enjoy some delicious peanuts and a soda in these oh so comfortable Southwest Airlines seats on a very bumpy flight.

12:15am Monday…day one continued

Made it to Norfolk, got everyone off the plane, filed a claim for the one missing bag (bummer…but hopefully they will deliver it to our hotel soon) and we have some time before we need to meet the other two groups at dinner so we make a quick detour. Fortunately, the site for the deciding battle of the Revolutionary War, The Battle of Yorktown, is right on the way. The visitors center is already closed but the good news, there just happens to be a history teacher along for this trip. We walk out to some of the cannons placed there as I point out what happened at this pivotal battle. Nice way to start our visit. Back on the bus and on to dinner. This was a change since we discovered our original choice was not going to be open. Tonight dinner was at a pizza restaurant with a buffet of salad, spaghetti, mac n cheese, chicken fingers and pizza. The food tasted pretty good. I didn’t have any but I was told the mac n cheese was great. The only problem was they weren’t quite ready for us and had difficulty keeping the supply of food available but eventually everyone had enough to eat and we were ready for the highlight of the evening….the ghost our. We stopped by our hotel to pick up our guides and the ghost stories started before we even left the parking lot. Our guides were great this year. We started at the College of William and Mary then proceeded to make our way through Colonial Williamsburg. In the dark, the scary stories were even spookier. I don’t know if anyone had a dramatic ghost sighting this time but there were definitely some orbs and lightening bolts in some photos. Spooky but lots of fun. 

After a very long but fun day everyone is in their rooms, hopefully getting some sleep cuz tomorrow is another big day. I’d love to chat more but I am whooped. Yak at cha tomorrow……..Mr Eklund

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Day Two....................... Sorry this is late, had trouble accessing the internet last night.........

2014 Washington DC Trip Day Two

Talk about being jolted awake. That six-thirty a.m (that’s 3:30am for you) wake up call was a bit painful. Let’s just say there were quite a few bleary eyes down at breakfast. On the menu this morning was French toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, oatmeal, melons and my favorite, pineapple. It is amazing how refreshed and animated everyone is after breakfast. Great start to the day.

We had something new this year which made my job a whole lot easier. Two official Williamsburg guides joined us at breakfast and spent most of the day escorting us around. Ed and Joel provided a lot of extra interesting information about the area and the places we would be going that we have missed in previous trips. One interesting tidbit is about a plant they introduced here to keep the dirt from turning into a dust bowl in dry times. It is called Kudzu (sp?) and it is similar to ivy in California. It is kind nice looking but it has taken over and was choking out the native species of plants. Then he pointed out some places where it was growing along the highway, taking over everything in its path and it has no natural enemies that would get rid of it. Learn something new everyday.

Since we are only at this hotel for one night we need to go back up to the rooms, grab our bags and load them on the bus…in the rain. Just a little downpour to knock down the humidity a bit but it clears up before we make it to our first stop of the day. This morning we start out at the glassblowing operation at Jamestown. This is a reenactment of one of this colonies first attempt at being self sustaining. The kids thought this was pretty darn cool. Sticking the hot glass in the fire on the end of a long tube to make some really neat stuff pitchers, vases, glassware, etc. was quite interesting to watch. 

Next it is on to the reproduction of the Jamestown fort and town. It has to be a reproduction because the original site for the fort is now out in the middle of the James River. We have four fantastic Jamestown guides to lead us through the entire site. It really is quite impressive. Everywhere you turn there are people portraying the actual people, their jobs and actions. We were able to experience life in a Powhatan village where they demonstrated canoe making, hemp rope making, deer skin drying and the prep work needed to turn the skins into clothes. From there it is down to the wharf where could board two of the three accurate reproductions of the Discovery and the Susan Constant (the Godspeed was undergoing repairs.) In the fort we saw how they fired their guns. It’s a very complex, multi-step production for each shot but they could actually fire four shots a minute. Amazing! Life was certainly hard back then. They slept three to five to a bed, with up to five beds in a single bedroom. Even the Governor had people sleeping in his room. Granted they were his wife, kids and a servant or two but better than sharing a bed with five guys. The fort had all the things you would expect in a small pioneer town such as a blacksmith, weapons room, gunpowder room, food storehouses, bunkhouses, kitchen, but most prominent of all is the church. Everyone was required to be a member of the church of England and it was required that everyone attend church every day, twice a day…and three times on Sunday. After touring the fort we went into the museum for a very well done recap of the history of Jamestown. One real cool thing about that is the basis for the “Talking Tree” in the Disney version of Pocahontas was a real tree. They had a huge model of it in the museum. Very cool

Time for some shopping. Jamestown has a nice gift shop. Ms. Nelson (Mrs Blake’s student teacher) just found out she got hired at Analy High School while we were at Jamestown so she bought a beautiful quill pen and ink pot to put on her new desk. Congratulations Ms. Nelson. 

From Jamestown we head over to Colonial Williamsburg. We have a little bit of time before we have lunch so Ed and Joel take us over the visit the prison where we can check out a couple of original cells from 1705. Did you know that jail used to be spelled jail gaol? They certainly do not look like a place that I would like to spend any of my time. There is also a gallows but not like the kind you might be picturing. Instead of a big stand where the bottom drops out, its more like an elevated triangle. A couple days before the hanging, a carpenter will come to the jail to measure the condemned for a coffin. Every coffin is custom made to fit. When its time for the hanging, the shackled prisoner is chained to the coffin and rides on it to the gallows. The prisoner has to stand on the coffin while a noose is placed around his neck. Once all is ready they justmoved the cart with the wagon out from under the prisoner. A slow painful death is on the way. Instead of snapping the neck and killing the condemned instantly, they dangle and slowly strangle. Death can take up to 45 minutes…..and now time for lunch.

Today’s lunch was AWESOME! The Kings Arm is a tavern from days of old. The fare of the day is Fried chicken, green beans, roasted potatoes, hot dinner rolls and Homemade Ice Cream. Served by a wait staff in authentic era outfits complete with a harp player. What a treat. Never been here before but we will definitely be coming back to this delightful restaurant.

After lunch, its time for some serious touring of Williamsburg. We meet up with a couple more guides to check out many of the town’s highlights. We have an extensive lesson from the town’s wigmaker. I never realized how expensive those things are. One regular type wig would cost about as much as two acres of land or a couple of cows or a couple of pigs. And everybody who wore those wigs shaved their heads for the fittings and kept their heads shaved to wear them, even the ladies. Yikes!

There were so many places we went in and every group had a different experience. Show were put on trial in the courthouse, some stomped in the mud to mix the clay to make bricks (yes, they did it barefoot.) Some went to the armory to see all the weapons that were stored there. Some went into the apothecary where they were shocked to see the tooth pulling tool and realized that they did it with out any pain medication or Novocain. No pain relief at all plus when they asked about using alcohol they learned that was just in the movies and didn’t really work. Some kids had fun putting their heads and arms in the pillory and the stocks for some great buddy photos! We even got to see some street reenactments with horses and buggies as well as men and women dressed and acting in 1775 character. We finished our tour with a bit of shopping in the authentic Williamsburg shops. All in all, a pretty net experience.

Almost five in the afternoon so we say goodbye to Ed and Joel (or was it Jeff) and head to dinner. Tonight we dined at the Golden Corral in Fredricksburg which is about halfway between Williamsburg and our new hotel in Tysons Corner, Virginia. Its amazing how many people told me today that “I usually do not like buffets but this is really good.” I agree. The steak, while not Cattleman’s, is definitely better than most non-steakhouse restaurants where I have had a steak. They had some cool new stuff including not just one but three chocolate fountains (dark chocolate, white chocolate and sugar cookie) with lots of choices to stick under the drips. They also made fresh cotton candy. I don’t think I have ever seen a restaurant serve freshly made cotton candy before. What a unique treat. 

Fun on the bus to Tysons Corner. Tony wa trying to het the kids singing and got them to dance their way off the bus. This new hotel is WOW! First class place. Beautiful and comfortable rooms. Definitely a step up from the Crown Plaza we usually stay at. Two new keepers today, the Kings Arm Tavern and the Sheraton Premiere at Tysons Corner Virginia.

It is now 12:20am, wake up call is 6:00 but think I might try the 5:00am bike ride since the back pain is flaring up. We shall see if I still want to do that when the alarm goes off at 5:00am. There are some boys who plan on working out that early as well. I think I need to see that to believe it. Have a great evening….yak at cha tomorrow. Mike Eklund

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2014 Washington DC Trip Day Three
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Reveille at oh six hundred…actually Mr. Ortlinghaus and I were up at five in the gym but everyone was down for breakfast at seven. A very nice spread today with pancakes, sausages, potatoes, scrambled eggs, pastries, cereals, etc. I think most kids got a good night sleep, I hope so anyway cuz they sure didn’t the night before. After breakfast its on the bus except, whoops, one set of bus passengers left their bus such a mess last night the bus had to be cleaned. James, one of our bus drivers was not happy at all. He was still cleaning the bus long after we were supposed to leave. Hopefully watching the students on that bus doing pushups motivated the other bus to keep it clean.
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Off we head through morning Washington D.C. traffic. Actually, for DC with a late start traffic was pretty light. A lot of the construction from past years has been completed and most of the DC National Birds (the construction Cranes) have been taken down. I only say four of them today. I remember counting 37 of them a couple of years ago. Before our first stop we cruise by the old post office to pick up our guides, Karen and the last minute replacement Julie (nope, I don’t know what happened to Mary). On to our first real stop of the day The Grant Memorial where we will have our group photos taken. This memorial is located down the hill from the Capitol but the photo makes it look like we are standing on the steps of the Capitol itself. Oh, I forgot to mention it is raining a little this morning so our appointment to meet with Jared Huffman has been moved inside due to the weather which means we have to be up the hill earlier so we can go through security to get inside. The photo shoot was actually really smooth. The group photos will be available in a few weeks. I will let you know so we can meet up at Kenilworth to pass them out.
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The hike up the hill is sweaty. Today was supposed to have the highest humidity of the year. Its still early and already the sweat is pouring. We gather in an alcove on the ground floor to wait for our Congressman, Jared Huffman. To keep the kids from milling about and blocking the aisle we have them sit on the floor. Of course a Capitol police officer comes over to make them all get up. It seems the only people who sit on the floor are protestors. Unfortunately, I didn’t see the police officer and when everyone started to get up I was telling them to sit. The officer wasn’t too pleased at first but was pretty good natured once we had a chat. Congressman Huffman was great. He had lots to say and the kids were really receptive. Mr. Huffman was quite friendly. I think I will invite him to come visit school when he is back home sometime. He took the time to answer all of our questions and I was quite impressed with the quality of the kids questions.
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{{{{{{By The way, right now it is 12:35am on Wednesday morning…the fire alarm has been ringing for the past TWO hours due to a broken water pipe in the parking structure….Gonna be lots of tired kids tomorrow}}}}}}

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After meeting the Congressman we go up for a visit to the Senate Gallery. It’s the first time I’ve gotten on the Senate side of the building. It is similar to the House of Representatives side but not as exciting. Since they are technically in session you can’t really talk at all but there is next to nothing going on. When we first walk in a Senator is talking about a transportation appropriations bill but she is the only Senator in the room. Actually there is one other, a junior Senator is the acting President Pro Temp. Once the speaking Senator is done, she leaves someone comes in and replaces the acting pro temp and other than the pages and some people shuffling papers there is pretty much no one in the room. The only action is some old guy in a suit sitting in the back of the room who gets up and walks across the room a couple of times, stopping once to straighten out Barbara Boxers chair as he walks by. We did have fun anyway since we were making up our own commentary about the little bit of action that was going on. Before boredom sets in we leave the Gallery and head down to the lobby for our tour of the building. It was pretty funny when the kids realized that we stopped to listen to our tour guide right in front of the portraits I gave each of them when we left San Francisco (it appears on the back of the two dollar bill). We had a chance to check out the Rotunda including the protective donut up near the top to protect people below from the ongoing renovations near the top of the dome. Looking past that you could still see George Washington surrounded by the angels on the ceiling. We also discovered that Abraham Lincolns desk when he was in the House of Representatives was located right in front of the current location of one of California’s two statues, Father Junipero Serra. The other statue is of Ronald Reagan located near an exit to the Rotunda.
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As we leave the Capitol we pause to learn a little bit about the Supreme Court located across the street before heading down the hill to Union Station for lunch. Somehow we timed lunch perfectly and there were virtually no lines at any restaurant in the food court. Quite unusual since this place is usually packed at lunchtime.
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After lunch Tony and James meet us in the bus area of the station, and we head to one of the newest museums in D.C., the Newseum. This is a museum dedicated to the history of the news. We get to see a 4D movie that has the kids shrieking as cannonballs, bullets, rats, and fighter planes appear to leap out of the screen at them, and they can feel the rats running over their feet! The glass elevator is big enough to haul 50 of us at once up tot the top floor. As we go up you can see a section of the Berlin Wall, one of the radio towers from the World Trade Center , and there is even a news helicopter hanging in the middle of the main lobby. The sixth floor has possibly the best view of the Capitol and much of D.C. and many selfies were taken. The 4D film is really cool but I think the favorite for most was the featured exhibit on Anchorman. Ron Burgundy is everywhere because he is kind of a big deal around here I guess. In the Anchorman themed exhibit the kids got to ham it up in a broadcast, green-screen and all, just like KTV back home!
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Next up, three Memorials, called the initials memorials. They are the MLK, The FDR and the TJ. That would be the Martin Luther King, The Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Thomas Jefferson. These are all very different from each other. The MLK is a huge stone carving of Dr King facing the tidal basin with his arms crossed. It is supposed to look like this chunk is carved out of the stone to either side of the memorial. Located throughout the site are carvings of some of Dr King’s most famous quotes. The FDR is a series of outdoor rooms carved from red granite with numerous bronze statutes to describe the various periods of FDR’s life. There are statues of men in a bread line, someone listening to a fireside chat, FDR sitting with his dog, his wife Eleanor as well as one showing him in his wheelchair. This one was very controversial since he and his family did not want him to be shown that way. From the FDR we walk around the Tidal Basin to the Thomas Jefferson. This is a beautiful site. Located in a domed, open sided with columns building there is a 19 foot tall statue of our third president. Quite an impressive sight to behold. There was a high school band playing at the base of the monument for a nice little treat.
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Time to eat again, this time it is a real mall food court. The Ballston Commons food court is fairly small but it is never crowded which makes it nice for us to make a quick meal stop. I think the kids were happy with the choices. There was a Thai place, Dim sum, A sandwich shop, a Chik Fil-A, McDonalds, Arbys, Pizza and a couple other choices. Not sure who had what but it was hilarious when one of the adults got a strawberry shake at Chik Fil-A and when asked if he wanted the whipped crème and cherry he said just the cherry cuz the crème was too fattening. No need to make up stories with material this great falling in my lap.
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After dinner we head over to the White House so we can take some pictures before it gets dark. It is still pretty busy with a large group from Massachusetts taking their sweet time. Lots of police activity with some lady with her dog and rolling suitcases on Pennsylvania Avenue. The Secret Service obviously wanted her to move on but she was busy readjusting her suitcases and dog carrier and basically shuffling her stuff like the guys in the Senate chamber today until just before she started trudging away she stopped to brush her hair. I thought the older Secret Service agent was gonna burst trying not to laugh. After she left I told the agent not to worry, no one saw him laugh and he busted a gut laughing. A very nice man working to protect our president. About this time the other group is finally out of the way so we can pose for some pictures. …make that a lot of pictures. Practically everyone wanted their camera to be used to take a picture of the group.

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On to our final stop of the day, The Lincoln Memorial. What a beautiful site! This has got to be one of the prettiest views in DC. Looking out from Lincoln’s vantage point you see the Washington monument in the reflecting pool as well as the actual monument lit up beyond the pool. Past the Monument to the brightly lit Capitol dome. Absolutely stunning view.

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That was supposed to be it for the day but just after bed checks at 10:30pm, the fire alarms goes off. We exit the building safely, the firemen arrive, and we find out pretty quickly that the alarm is caused by a broken pipe or connection I the garage and we can go back to our rooms. The alarms are still ringing but we can go back inside. Thank goodness the alarms are not as loud as the school fire alarm but it is annoying enough. It is now almost 2:00am and the alarm is still ringing. The Worldstride rep went next door to WalMart and bought their entire supply of earplugs which they have been passing out. Apparently they cannot figure out how to shut the stupid thing off yet. Hopefully they figure it out soon but in any case I can’t keep my eyes open anymore. Good Night.
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2014 Washington DC Trip Day Four

The wake up call was at the same time as every other day but it sure seemed a lot earlier. That fire alarm was a royal pain but our kids had some ingenious fixes. One room stacked luggage, seat cushions, pillows, etc. until they could block the speaker/flashing light. Another jammed a pillow in between a picture on the wand a hanger tucked behind the picture so the pillow covered. Another took apart a duct tape wallet to use the tape to hold a pillow over the speaker/light. Others tried more personal methods such as using a hoodie to tie a pillow to her head or putting on headphones with music to cover the alarm noise. Overall, everyone was pretty tired but in good spirits for the day.

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First stop, Arlington National Cemetery. The weather report is threatening. Lots of clouds cool of the temperature a bit but also add to the humidity. Traffic is pretty heavy and it seems like an awful lot of buses are going the same place we are today. It is quite a hike up the hill with a few stops for lessons about who can be buried here, requirements for headstones, what the symbols on the headstones mean, why people place rocks and coins on top of the headstones, etc. The first real site is the Kennedy’s gravesites. There are a few Kennedy’s buried here. There is JFK with his wife Jackie as well as an infant who passed away shortly after she(?...sorry can’t remember…I think the baby was a daughter but I am not sure). This site features the newly rebuilt eternal flame with Robert E Lee’s home on the hill above it and a tremendous view of the city below. Jackie decided on this location because Jack had been there about six months earlier and said it was so peaceful he could stay there forever. On the same hill around the corner to the left there is a plain white cross. This is the burial site for Jack’s brother Bobby (Robert F Kennedy) because that is all he wanted. Further to the left is another plain white cross to identify the grave site of Ted Kennedy. From here, it a bit of a walk to see the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns. This is such a moving experience. The dedication to do this right is simply tremendous. So precise it is amazing. Behind the Changing Guards and the Tombs there is a large amphitheatre. They were hard at work setting up for a big event on Friday….the 150th Anniversary of Arlington National Cemetery. Across the street is the second most visited gravesite (after the Kennedy’s) in the entire cemetery and the location of my annual lesson about a great American, Audie L Murphy. Be sure to see the movie To Hell And Back where Audie actually plays himself. A few other notable sites here and then it is time to board the buses for lunch.

Today we are going to the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center. Touted to be the largest office building in the United States this place is so big it has its own food court downstairs. The hassle is you have to go through security to get into the building. With thousands of school children on DC trips combined with the office workers this place can be as busy as Union Station but today we must have timed it pretty good since it is not very crowded. 

After lunch, its back to checking out some memorials. We start with the trio of Vietnam displays, the most famous of which is The Wall. The Vietnam Wall is shaped like two long triangles connected at the high point in the middle going out in opposite directions. The whole thing is sunken so you cannot see the wall from the backside even though it is about ten feet high in the middle. There are about 60,000(?) names carved in The Wall representing the soldiers killed or missing as a result of the Vietnam War. All along the wall people place flowers and other mementos as tributes to those listed. This is always one of the most emotional places we visit. In addition to the Wall there are two other parts to this memorial. One is a statue depicting the role of nurses in Vietnam. The other is a statue showing three soldiers standing together: one black, one white, and one Hispanic to shows that the Vietnam War was the first time that our armed forces were truly integrated.

From The Wall we had to walk across towards the Korean but it took us a while because the view across the reflecting pool is incredible. You get to see the Washington Monument twice, once in the reflecting pool and once standing beyond it. You can also see part of the World War II Memorial which is sunken about halfway between the Lincoln and Washington monuments.

Continuing our walk, we reach the Korean War Memorial. This is a multifaceted memorial. The feature point is 19 full size bronze statues of soldiers walking through the rice paddies. Each soldier is unique with facial features design to depict the various nationalities of the United Nations forces. They are walking between strips of black granite with junipers in between. At night and in the rain this really looks like you are there but at night you can’t see all the beautiful etchings on the side wall. Lots and lots of people and scenes from the war are etched in white on the black granite. Very pretty! There is also a peaceful pond with small waterfall on the sides along with two half circle arboretums for peaceful and cool meditation. 

Our next stop is too far to walk so it’s back on the bus for a quick hop over to the Air and Space Museum. This museum is always packed and justifiably so. There is so much to see its hard to know where to start. I asked the kids to check out the Russian space toilet to see if they could figure out how it works. There’s a replica of the original Wright Flyer as well as the actual original Spirit of St Louis which Charles Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic. There are lots of rockets and planes as well as exhibits on propeller and jet aircraft. Pretty cool.

One more stop before dinner. We couldn’t fit it in yesterday so today we are going to check out Daniel’s Story at the Holocaust Museum. This is a section of the museum designed for kids. The exhibit traces the life experiences of a young Jewish boy and his family from the rise of the Nazi’s to the end of World War II. It is a walk through exhibit which dramatically shows the change from a middle class family life to being treated like scum in just a few years. Quite dramatic yet not too intense for our kids. 

Dinner tonight is always one of the girls favorite places, the Pentagon City Mall. They usually eat pretty fast so they can go shopping. It was a surprise, the food court has been remodeled since last year. Lots of new choices and everything looks so clean and shiny. Pretty good dinner then it is off to the highlight of the trip….The Twilight Tattoo!

………………….. Cannot stay awake any longer……will finish later. Sorry

Ahhhhhhh, my favorite part of the trip….the Twilight Tattoo. Every year I worry that we will have a rainout on Wednesday evening because that has traditionally meant that the Twilight Tattoo would get cancelled. This year it turns out that they move the show inside if its going to be raining. They just open the big doors to the big building so they can still get the full effect of the howitzers firing outside. That is only if they are pretty sure it will be raining and they can set up all the equipment inside. But, that doesn’t help much if all the equipment is already set up outside and the weather turns. We arrive early and got the best seats, had some really nice soldiers helping us find the best seats for the big show. Since we are so early (to get the best seats) we have to entertain ourselves for a while so I stand up in the back to talk to the lovely army honor guard in her dress blues. Her name was Lauren Wheeler so I introduced her to Mr Radke who is in the back row at the opposite end of the bleachers from us. All I doing was introducing two young people and the audience thought I was trying to set the two of them up. I have no idea why….so of course I introduced the male honor guard to Miss Nelson. Again they thought I was setting the two of them up. (of course, later on the bus, the kids were trying to set Miss Nelson up with Mr Radke…I have no idea where they got that idea either. J Anyway, back to our story. As the place is starting to fill up we watch as the weather get colder, an darker, and windier then sure enough, an announcement on the PA says “Due to the inclement weather, go back to your buses” Dang! Best seats ever and back to the bus, although Mr Radke’s new friend Lauren promises to try and save our seats for us. We were not on the buses very long before we notice people headed out to the field again. We scramble to get to our seats, not quite as good as before but as promised Lauren saved some good seats for us. Sometimes it pays to make friends with the right people.

The show starts of with a full jazz/rock band with four combat fatigue outfitted singers singing and getting the audience into the show. Next out is an army color guard, the singing of God Bless America and the National Anthem before yielding the field to a drum and fife corps. By the way, it is raining but not terribly, and then it stops. One of the most moving events was the introduction of a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran to represent all the soldiers who served in Vietnam. (more on him later.) The show continues with the army drill team marching and tossing around rifles like they were toy guys….with really sharp bayonets on the end. From here we had members of the army coming out in the period uniforms depicting every era of the army from Revolutionary times until today. All the while they are shooting off many different types of guns including four big Howitzers sitting behind the dignitaries. Unfortunately the sky has been getting darker and a storm is obviously on its way so instead of hanging around meeting all the participants in the show due to the inclement weather we are asked to go to our buses. Bummer, but we didn’t do as we were told. First I had to get a picture of Ms Wheeler with Mr Radke. She is from Pennsylvania so she was kinda geographically undesireable for Mr Radke. I also stopped to thank that Vietnam Veteran for his service where I also met a Vietnamese soldier who was talking with him. He was describing how he learned to speak English by listening to rock n roll music on his transistor radio. He was hilarious. He know all the words to “Sugar, Sugar”, “Heard it Through the Grapevine”, etc. but had idea what they meant. That didn’t stop his supervisors from appointing him to be the unit interpreter! How funny. By now the rain is really coming down. Almost everyone is back on the buses but we also have a visitor. A young man with lots of military bling on his uniform was on the bus talking to the kids. He went to Kenilworth and graduated from Casa in 1986. He just wanted to come say hi to a group from home and tell the kids how great an influence the school had on his life. What an inspirational way to end the show!

It’s a DC trivia party on the bus on the way back to our hotel. Some silliness with prizes aboard the bus. Nice to have a little fun at the end of a long day. To make up for last night’s alarm fiasco I have a surprise when we get back to the hotel. I had told the hotel they needed to do something to make up for the alarm fiasco, as did our assistant from Worldstrides. They came through with ice cream, the makings for sundaes, cookies, ice cream bars, popsicles, granola bars, potato and tortilla chips fruit punch and lemonade for us all. A nice treat to finish a VERY tiring day.

Sorry this was so late in getting done. I will be working on day five and six during our flight home. By the way, the late group, United Flight 1076 is current running about an hour and a half late. That puts us in to SFO approximately 12:30am…we will have the kids call home when we get to Marin to give you time to come meet us at school…..in the meantime I will work on the blogs for Thursday and Friday.

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2014 Washington DC Trip Day Five Thursday

Today we are trying something brand new. We are headed for Baltimore and a visit to Ft. McHenry. Located on a peninsula, this fort protects the entrance to the harbor and was instrumental to keeping the British out of Baltimore during the War of 1812. This is truly a new experience for us since I have never been there before and we do not have Karen or Julie to help us today. As we are driving through the neighborhood before the fort, Tony the bus driver asks me if I have ever seen the TV series The Wire. When I said yes Tony told me that this is The Wire neighborhood, and if for some reason we were to not be on the bus don’t go off the main street. Looking around I realized that The Wire (which is a show about a very scary, crime filled neighborhood) was closer to documentary than fiction. Pretty scary but its early in the morning, no drug dealers in sight and into the fort we go.

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It is raining today, not real heavy but enough. We have been surprisingly lucky with the rain this week. There has been quite a bit of rain but almost all of it fell while we were inside someplace but not today. We definitely got a little wet today. Off the bus and into the visitors center we go. There is a relatively small museum but it is quite well done. Most of the displays depict the events at the fort during the War of 1812, the writing of the Star Spangled Banner and the Civil War. The kids find the displays quite interesting but what we are all waiting for is the film about the Writing of the Star Spangled Banner. It is an excellent telling of the story of how Francis Scott Keyes found himself an observer of the battle from the deck of a British warship, then turning those observations into a poem about the joy of seeing the flag is still flying over the fort after a night of naval bombardment. It is a great film but the thing that makes it truly amazing is at the conclusion of the movie the screen goes up and the viewers find them selves looking out the window directly at the fort with the flag waving high above. What an awe- inspiring patriotic experience!

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Now that we are pumped up with patriot fervor, its time to tour the actual fort. We wander through the powder magazines, the bunkhouses, the officer’s quarters, and even a jail. That was neat but the real tour was walking the top of the walls. It was a rainy, overcast day with limited visibility – just like the night the British bombarded the fort. Looking out across the harbor you could almost see the British ships through the mist. It was amazing to see these huge cannons lining the walls of the fort only to realize they did not have the range that the British cannons on the ships had so there wasn’t much point of even trying to fire back. We scanned the horizon looking for the blue and white buoy that marked the location of the British ship that held Francis Scott Keyes onboard during the battle. It all felt very real. Walking away from the fort one can understand why Mr Keyes found the site so inspiring. By the way, we timed this visit perfectly since this is the 200th anniversary of the writing of the Star Spangled Banner (although it didn’t become the National Anthem until 1931).

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It has stopped raining and we have some time before lunch so we set ‘em loose to explore the inner harbor. This place kinda reminds one of Fisherman’s Wharf. It’s a totally refurbished waterfront. The old power plant has been converted into a Barnes and Noble with a Starbucks in side (amazing how many kids head straight for Starbucks whenever they can). There is a hard rock café with an outdoor section on a floating pier, along with a few other floating pier restaurants. There are some old ships you can tour including a submarine, a Coast Guard Cutter and the USS Constellation Tall Ship. There is a display with a timeline of the New York World Trade center as well as a museum at the top of the Baltimore World Trade Center. There are restaurants and shops but the most fun of all, there a paddle boats shaped like dragons that some of the kids rented to go out and paddle around the harbor. There are lots of fun things to see and do before heading up to UNO pizza for lunch. 

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UNO Pizza is on the second floor and has a very nice view of the harbor. They also have excellent pizza. It was a simple fare today with salad, pasta and pizza but the pizza was incredibly good. Real thick crust with tons of mozzarella cheese, tasty sauce and tomatoes on top. We also had an extra guest join us for lunch. A classmate of these kids from elementary school who has moved to Pennsylvania was invited by his friends on the trip to come join us. Kenilworth really gets around. First, the soldier at the Twilight Tattoo and now a classmate in Baltimore, how fun is that.

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After lunch it is time to head back into DC with stops at the Natural History Museum and the American History Museum. On the drive back, the skies open up, the freeway is stopped and we start a very interesting side street journey back to The Mall. James and Tony did there best to get us back as quickly as possible but the conditions left us with not really enough time for these two museums. Fortunately, it has stopped raining during our drive and we are dropped off at the Natural History Museum. One thing you can count on at these museums is change. The Natural History Museum is redoing its dinosaur exhibit so most of the dinosaur bones are unavailable for viewing but for most, the highlight here is the Hope Diamond. I was surprised to see most kids wanted to spend most of their time in this museum. That was probably a good thing since while they are in this one it has started raining again, When it rains heavy almost all the groups head to the museums to stay dry, which means the American History Museum all of a sudden becomes swamped with people. I had heard that Worldstrides alone had 7,000 students touring in DC today. This made the security checkpoint look like a Monday morning at SFO a LONG line headed out the door and down the front of the museum. To add to the crowd, only half of the museum is open. Nearly have of the building is blocked off for the construction of new exhibits that will not be open until 2016. (I don’t get this at all, they just did the same thing to the entire museum just a few years ago.) The awesome part of this museum was the tie in to Ft McHenry. After going to the fort this morning and learning all about the star spangled banner, or flag, that flew over the fort, we got to see the actual flag hanging in the American History Museum. Yup, those are chills running up your spine from being so close to history today.

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Next it is time for our appointment to go up to the top of the Washington Monument. My oh My, what a view! I went up near the front of the group and stayed til the end helping students identify all the places we had visited this week. There are windows on all four side of the monument, 500 feet off the ground so you can see everything. I bopped from window to window pointing out the sights. Straight out of the elevator we see the Capitol, Supreme Court, RFK Stadium, and the American History, Natural History, Air & Space, and American Indian Museums. To the left we see the White House, Treasury Department, Ronald Regan Trade Center, and the Ellipse. Opposite the first view we see the Lincoln, World War II, Vietnam War, Korean War, MLK, and FDR Memorials as well as Arlington Cemetery. And in our final set of windows we can see the Holocaust Museum, Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Jefferson Memorial and Ronald Regan airport..

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Back at the bottom we walk across the street to the World War II Memorial. This memorial has so much symbolism it would take weeks to explain it all. Everything represents something beyond the obvious. It is pretty amazing. It centers around a large oval pool with fountains at either side. A series of columns around the ends pay tribute to those involved in the two separate conflicts The War in the Pacific and the War in Europe. The wall of gold starts represents the American soldiers who lost their lives in this war, My favorite part is the bronze relief scenes on either side of the entry walkway that tell the story of the war. This memorial is fairly new. Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg raised most of the money to build it and I urge you to go do a little research on this on for yourself.

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Can you believe it is time to eat again? This time it is the Sizzling Express. The owner/manager comes out to tell us that it is not normally a buffet but for us it will be a buffet tonight. It sure looks like a buffet but I found out that normally they charge for the food by weight but for us it is a flat rate for all you can eat. Personally, I am not a big fan of buffets but it does make it real easy for our picky eaters to pick what they want to eat. Of course that means the students that were complaining that we had a lot of pizza (we went to a pizza/pasta place twice) on the trip were getting pizza at the buffet. Go figure. Anyway, as far as buffets go this one is pretty good. They do have an extensive salad bar. It was nice to see that most of the kids did have a big salad tonight.

One last stop for today….souvenir shopping. Tony called one of the better priced souvenir shops and got them to stay open later for us. In addition, since we were friends of Tony, they gave us 20% off everything in the store. What a deal pretty decent prices to start with plus a 20% discount.

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Since tomorrow is our last day its time to head back to the hotel for a quick meeting to go over details for tomorrow, some unexpected entertainment from the pool area (ask your student) and an early bed check to give everyone some extra time to get most of their stuff packed before leaving to hotel in the morning.

Again, I apologize that these are arriving so late but I think you understand

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2014 Washington DC Trip Day Six Friday

Today marks the last day of our journey. It’s hard to believe that it was less than a week ago we started with that ghost tour in Williamsburg. I was so very impressed this morning with the great job everyone did at getting packed and loaded on the buses, ready to go on time. That is a hard thing to do. To get everyone packed up, check rooms to make sure we don’t leave things behind, load up the bags in certain bins to make sure we don’t have to shuffle around looking through the second groups bags for the first group’s flights. Well done everyone! Thank you!

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Today we are heading out to George Washington’s home at Mount Vernon. There is a great education center and a lot of cool things to see but the highlight is definitely walking through Washington’s home. This is tricky because now you can only book your tour appointment 72 hours in advance. As I mentioned yesterday, the city is crawling with tour groups which means getting appointment times all together is extremely difficult for a large group such as ours. This is where Karen and Julie really came in handy. Karen had booked about half of our group at one time but then they literally had to book the rest of us in groups of twos, three, etc. at times close to the main group to get us all in relatively close together. This was a lot of work on their part to maximize our time at the plantation but it worked out great and many of the smaller groups were actually allowed to combine anyway when we got to the house. Yea Karen and Julie!

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Washington’s home is quite beautiful with elaborate decorative touches that really highlight his ties to agriculture. From the farm tools painted in the trim in the living room to the carvings on the fireplace mantel it is pretty obvious that Washington likes the life of a farmer. Over the years much of the house has been replaced, with original materials such as yellow pine but there was one place that you all got to touch the exact same place that President Washington, Mrs Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Lafayette, Alexander Hamilton as well as a virtual who’s who of Colonial Leaders touch as well! Hopefully you remembered to hold the handrail as you went upstairs because that handrail, carved out of black walnut, is the original handrail that has been in the house since that part of the house was built. Pretty cool. Also, did you notice the key hanging on the wall in the entryway? That was the key to the French Prison known as the Bastille that was given to Washington by Lafayette and has been hanging in that spot since George Washington hung it there himself over two hundred years ago. 

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There was a lot going on here today. The place was full of students but did you notice, the secret service had the place under close watch. I don’t know who they were watching over but the Secretary of Defense was here as was the Drum and Fife core from the Twilight Tattoo was here as well. Some of our group got to see them preform as well as watch a tribute to the Purple Heart that took place by Washington’s Tomb. The Purple Heart is the medal they give to anyone in our armed forces who is wounded in combat. Did you know this medal was created by George Washington himself way back during the Revolutionary War? By the way, how did you like the snow falling in the theatre? Pretty cool special effect wasn’t it? This place has one of the best gift shops in town as well. Hope you found something nice. Lots of kids were shopping for father’s day gifts so Dads, I hope you wanted some patriotic stuff this year.

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Next we are off to the Old Country Buffet. Everyone seemed to like this one. Lots of choices including some pretty decent BBQ chicken. Again a lot of people, kids as well as adults, ate salads today. Not quite as an extensive salad bar as last night but not bad. The kids were pretty excited to find they have added slurpy machines. Plus they must have replaced their ice cream machine because this is the first time I have been here that the machine didn’t overheat and shut down completely. 

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After lunch it is time to say goodbye to Karen and Julie. They both work really well with the kids and help us learn so much about all the things we see and do along the way. Our Mount Vernon visit would have been a mess without their help. Considering it was the first time these two have ever worked together they did a pretty good job of guiding us around and figuring out how to best utilize our time. I thank them and I thank you for all your donations to the tips fund. I left the cards you signed and tips with Tony, James, Karen, Julie, Ed and Joel as well as a few others who helped us along the way. Also, you probably saw him at the hotel but may not have known who he was, but John Doyle was our onsite coordinator from Worldstrides and he did a fantastic job for us. On a trip like this there are a lot of things that come up along the way that need to be taken care of right away. If John and I are doing our jobs right you don’t even notice the problems or if its something out of our control (such as the fire alarm business) we are the ones who try to make things right. John was my great advocate to get the hotel to do something to make up for the alarm fiasco. This is one of the biggest reasons I stay with Worldstrides. None of the other tour companies have an onsite coordinator which means that I, as the tour leader, would have to worry about even more than I already do not to mention some things I don’t even know need to be or that we could have done.

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After we drop off Karen and Julie, looking at the traffic and the weather, I decided to make a last minute change. Rather than drive out Quantico and have to rush through the Marine Corps Museum (and if traffic got worse, which it did when the downpour began, have to miss it altogether after driving out there) I changed our planes and headed towards the Udvar Hazy extension of the Air & Space Museum. This change would give us more time at a great museum place we would only be a few minutes from the terminals during rush hour traffic. This turns out to be a very good change. This museum has planes, planes and more planes. There’s a wide variety of aircraft from early helicopters to the Space Shuttle, rockets and satellites to the passenger module of the first balloon to circle the globe. We can see the Enola Gay (which dropped the atoms bombs in Japan during WWII), P-38, P-51, Concorde, Boeing 707, SR-71, Phantom, Harrier, etc. etc. etc. ll in one great big hanger. For an airplane buff this place is heaven. 

Time to say goodbye to first group. The get to the airplane and the place is a madhouse. Security is all backed up and they worried if they were gonna make their flight on time. Fortunately, they all did and from I heard everyone made it home all save and sound. They also texted me to let me know the airport was such a mess and that we might want to show up early just in case it got worse. So we, quickly rounded everyone up and made our way to the terminal. I guess the rush was over because when we arrived the lines were minimal. That’s okay, as tired as everyone was we just made our way to the gate where everyone parked their stuff. We also discovered we would plenty of time to get something to eat since our flight is showing an hour and a half delay due to a mechanical problem. That hour and half stretched into almost three and a half as the story changed a number of times. No mention of mechanical problems, now they don’t have pilots. Got some pilots but now no flight attendants. Found some flight attendants coming in but turns out they can’t do it because their luggage did not make their flight. .Next, found a couple flight attendants but still short one. Finally, found the last flight attendant but her flight is just arriving so she will be here soon. By now these kids are tired and getting punchy but even though they were getting a little louder, I was very impressed with how respectful they were towards the other passengers. It was especially funny when one of the boys donned a cape, odl-fashioned flying helmet and goggles and proceeded to volunteer to fly out plane. I don’t think the united agent thought it was that funny but everyone else in the terminal burst out laughing. Finally, our 8:10pm scheduled flight departed at 11:30pm. With Free Direct TV for everyone!

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The plane ride home was a bit bumpy but almost all of the kids slept most of the way. Our luggage was coming down the carousel when we got there and the bus picked us up right out front. After a very quiet ride home everyone was picked up and gone within five minutes. Best of all, instead of the usual zombies dragging to the cars without saying a word almost everyone made it a point to come over and give me a hug goodbye! For this old guy that means more than you can possibly know. I am so glad you had a great experience. I know we packed in a lot but I think you got a pretty good sampling of our nation’s capitol. I am looking forward to seeing you again at the picture distribution which will be in a few weeks. 

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Thanks again for joining me on this great journey. I hope you had as much fun as me.  Now, I think I will go take a nap before getting started editing the dvd.

THIS IS NOT A SCHOOL SPONSORED EVENT!