Kenilworth Junior High School
2007 Washington D.C. Trip
Sunday June 10th, 2007
Everyone arrived at KJHS plenty early, ready for the adventure to begin. The
bus rides to SFO went fine, infact, traffic was so light we arrived
verrrrrrrrrrry early. Had a good chance to get to know each other prior to
the long flights. Only issue enroute, the Delta connecting flight from
Atlanta to DC was a little bit delayed due to a minor pressurization problem
but both buses hooked up in DC and it was off to pick up our guides.
We were very lucky, we got Anne again and her friend Karen. Wow, do we ever
have great guides! Bam! Right to the good stuff. First stop, the Korean War,
Abraham Lincoln, Vietnam War, Vietnam soldiers, and Women in Vietnam
memorials! An extra treat, there was a contingent of Korean Generals touring
the Korean War memorial (too bad they weren't interested in posing for
pictures). The kids were amazed at the size of Lincoln and some tried to
give a piece of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" specch on the
steps. Many of the kids were shocked to discover just how many names were
etched into the Vietnam Wall and some members of our group were able to find
the names of friends or loved ones that they had lost in the war.
Next we crossed the street and climbed into Einstein's lap...all 50
kids...at once! Big lap! On to lunch at Union Station. Had a great lunch and
also experienced some DC culture as a couple of "gentlemen" had a rather
heated disagreement in the eating area. Didn't see either of them recieve a
pair of silver bracelets but they did attract the attention of the local
police.
Next it was on to the National Archives, location of the Magna Carta, the
Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights!
Pretty impressive site. There was also a neat exhibit about the Presidents
from school house to the white house. I'm not sure if it made me feel better
or worse to know that some of our presidents had some pretty crummy grades
over the years. (not everyone made it to the school house part of the
exhibit..there's just soooooooo much to see and only so much time.)
Next it was on to Ford's Theater, where Lincoln was shot. Unfortunately this
was just a picture stop because that building is closed for refurbishment
for the next two years. We did go through Peterson's House, where they took
President Lincoln for his final hours. Did you know that John Wilkes Booth
had actually slept in the same bed that Mr. Lincoln passed away in when a
previous tenant had rented the room and Booth was visiting this friend? We
also did a little shopping at this stop. Shirts were a pretty good deal.
The last stop in DC for the day was at the Holocaust Museum. I was very
rpoud at how respectful and interested the kids were at this stop. We only
see a very brief, kid centered potion of this very moving exhibit. I HIGHLY
recommend coming back when they are bit older and touring the rest of the
museum.
Next is the drive to Williamsburg with a stop for dinner in Fredricksburg at
the Country Buffet. Pretty decent food for a buffet. We arrived in
Williamsburg just in time to start our Ghost Tour. What a treat this was.
Starting on the campus of The College of William and Mary, we toured much of
the town with guides who told the most incredible stories!!!! This was
great. After a very long day, we got back to the hotel and checked in about
11:30pm...with a wake up call for 6:00am. WHAT A GREAT DAY!
Day Two
Breakfast at 7:00 bus leaves at 8 to arrive at Jamestown at 8:30am. We pick
up local guides who take us to the glassblowing area and describes much of
the daily life of the settlers at that time. We then tour the reconstructed
Fort/Settlement of Jamestown...including onboard tours of two of their
recently built replicas of the ships that brought the settlers to the New
World. The settlement is built to appear as close to exact as the original
settlements of both the settlers and the Native Americans, including
demonstrations of many of the daily tasks and weapons...ooooooh, gunshots!
Cool!
On to lunch...today we had lunch reservations at McDonalds. Well, my
paperwork showed reservations, but McDonalds didn't have our reservations.
Not a problem! I used my superior grace and charm, just kidding, they were
extremely accommodating, taking care of us pretty quickly even though I don't
think they were staffed for the occasion. The kids thought it was pretty
cool since they could have whatever they wanted with no limitations other
than only one time through the line.
After lunch its on to Colonial Williamsburg. It is amazing how much bigger
it is in the daylight! We had great tour guides who took us through many
parts of the village (it could easily take a week or more to tour
everything). We even re-enacted a trail...guess who was found guilty of
horse thievery and sentenced to hang (and I thought they liked me). This was
really cool. I had worried that skipping Gettysburg to go to Williamsburg
would cause the kids to miss out but I think this was actually better than
going to Gettysburg in many ways. Our 3-4 hour tour wizzed by in no time.
On to dinner at the Golden Corral, this two was a buffet but was this ever
good. The kids and parents all loved it (they even had big ole' slabs of
steak on the grill). This was definitely a keeper for future trips! As
everyone was almost done with dinner I happened to look outside and noticed
the weather was in the process of a huge shift...a big thunderstorm was
about to hit. Everyone quickly boared the buses. As we excited the parking
lot the sky opened and the flashes began. Great, we thought until we got on
the freeway and discovered somebody left a retainer on the table. While I
called the restaurant, my bus turned around and our drivers coordinated a
spot to meet up later. Fortunately, the retainers were found and no harm
done except making the driver extremely nervous as we drove back into the
worst of the storm instead of away from it.
We made it to our hotel early enough that some could go swimming but not
before we got to take another little detour. Neither of our drivers had been
to this hotel previously so when the lead driver acciddently got of one exit
too soon we got to try out all four loops in the cloverleaf before proceeding
to the next exit. Everyone had a good laugh as the drivers radioed each
other, "Hey, that was fun, Can we do it again?" Pretty funny, especially
when you are tired after two long but extremely exciting days.
Well, speaking of tired, it is now 12:05am and I have a wake up call for
5:30am. Hopefully, I'll be yakking at cha again tomorrow evening.
Day Three
Another fabulous day. We started off with a tour of the World War II
Memorial. Located between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument,
everyone was awestruck by all the symbolism of this monument. The wall of
gold stars (each one represented 1,000 American soldiers killed in action)
created quite an impression when I asked them to try and fit them all I the
camera's view finder without backing into the water of the fountain. Then is
was on to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. Many of the group
commented that if the family did not want FDR to be shown in the wheelchair
then it shouldn't have been included even though it was. Next was an early
lunch at the largest office building around, the Ronald Reagan Trade Center.
This place is so big that it has its own food court on the bottom floor.
Going early meant we had plenty of time to make it to our wreath laying
appointment at Arlington National Cemetary.
By now, we are getting a bit tired and most of the kids are not used to the
humidity. Its quite a long walk up the hill to the changing of the guard but
we made it in plenty of time for some of our group to participate in the
ceremony. After they switched guards we had the honor of placing a wreath,
with a Kenilworth Ribbon, at the Tomb of the Unknowns. Quite an experience
for those that did it as well as the rest of the group. One even commented
that "this alone made his trip, that if we didn't do anything else the
entire trip that this was enough for him to come on the trip."
After this moving experience we went down to the John F Kennedy and Robert
Kennedy gravesites. This is also when the weather turned. It started to rain
as we reached this site. Off in the distance we could see very black clouds
with thunder and flashes of lightning so we hurried down the hill and back
onto the bus. Fortunately we made it to the bus before it really started
raining.
Due to the weather we decided to stay indoors and go to the Air and Space
Museum. Since the American History Museum is closed for renovations they
have placed a number of real cool items in the Air and Space Museum
temporarily. We got to see Dorothy's slippers from the Wizard of Oz, R2-D2
and CP3O from Star Wars, George Washington's and Andrew Jackson's uniforms,
the sign post from M*A*S*H, Archie Bunkers, Chair, the original Kermit the
Frog Muppet, and so much more. There was a bunch of airplane and rocket ship
stuff as well.
Dinner was at Chipotle's, a pretty decent Mexican Restaurant. The resturant
is located partly below ground level so some of our girls were having a
grand time waving at everyone walking, biking, driving by so of course I had
to run out of the store by the window and surprise them with funny faces
from the sidewalk. It was quite fun for everyone. We did have some crummy
news at dinner, due to the weather the Twilight Tattoo (a musical history of
the military)was canccelled. Instead we toured the Iwo Jima (Marines)
Memorial. The memorial is next to Arlington Cemetary and the Army's Fort
Myers. The guide on our bus mentioned that a lot of "buff guys" tend to jog
there which of course meant the only people we saw jogging were graying
heavier guys and girls (a few pushing strollers). Quite a bit of teasing of
the gude followed (all good natured of course.)
Next was a new stop, the recently completed Air Force Memorial. Three
stainless steel structures reaching skyward designed to look like three
fighter jets going up and splitting away from each other. Pretty cool! One
last stop, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. The renovations are complete so we
got to see the entire monument with any scaffolding to block the view. Ole'
Thomas looked great. Back to the hotel with time to swim before a little bit
earlier bedtime. Wake up calls at 5:30am tomorrow so we can eat and be on
the round early. We have an appontment with Mrs. Washington at Mount Vernon
in the morning...and since its almost midnight, I'll be off to bed now. Talk
with you tomorrow.
Thursday June 14th
What an incredibly awesome day. Mount Vernon...George Washington's home. The
construction is completed and what a special treat! We had a sit down with
Martha Washington. She regaled us with stories of her life, about General
Washington (don't call him George) and other assoted bits about life in the
late 1700's. She dismissed the boys first by teaching them to bow, then the
girls with a lesson in curtsys. Then we toured the home followed by a visit
to the new visitors center. Wow, its a whole museum of its own. One could
easily spend an entire day at Mount Vernon but we had lots to do so all we
really had time for was a fantastic film. They call it "Disney on the
Potomac" because the seats shook, the fog rolled in and snow fell...inside
the theater. Really cool.
Next was a quick lunch at Roy Rogers (no, Trigger was not on the menu) then
it was on to the Capitol. We had our group photo in front (I will email when
they are ready) then a guided tour provided by Lynn Woolsey's aides. They
were great. There were no Representatives in the Gallery so we got to stay a
very long time and heard an excellent talk from a Capitol Police Officer
describing everything. Super tour.
From the Capitol we made our way to the Library of Congress. The interior of
this building is one of the most beautiful places in DC, not to mention the
neat exhibits inside (including the original Gettysburg Address). Next door
it was a viewing and mini-lesson about the Supreme Court (outside because
they had closed for the day) before boarding the bus for the Museum of
Natural History. The Hope Diamond was the highlight for most of the girls,
unfortunately we could only look and no one was able to bring it home.
Last stop was dinner at the Pentagon City Mall to top another great yet long
day.
Friday June 15th
Today started out with breakfast, some frantic looking for name tags and
loading the luggage on the bus before waving goodbye to out hotel. We picked
up our guides and headed to the Spy Museum. Was this ever fun. Upon entering
the surprisingly large building we took an elevator to the top floor where we
each assumed a fake identity to start our adventure. Lots of interesting spy
stuff including the original James Bond car and a chance for the kids to crawl
through the duct system (just like in the movies). Lots of twists and turns
with something interesting around every corner. Everyone enjoyed this stop. On
to the Postal Museum. We parked the buses at Union Station and walked through
to the Postal Museum. Some of the kids had special postacrds made to mail
home. The Railroad Postal car exhibit was pretty cool. It showed how mail was
picked up, sorted and dropped off as the train traveled from town to town.
Following the Postal Museum we went back through Union Station to the bus for
a short hop over to the Old Post Office which has be converted into an office
building with a food court on the bottom floor. There was a band playing in
the center courtyard and an elevator to the top of the clock tower which gave
the kids a chance to look out over the city.
After lunch we had one last stop before heading to the airport...The White
House. All the kids posed in front of the White House, and posed, and posed,
and posed while many of the adults clicked away with the kids cameras. After
snapping many shots of friends we made our way across Pennsylvania Avenue to
meet the protester who has been camped out on the sidewalk since 1981. The
opinions were a bit mixed on her, some admired her commitment while others
thought she should be committed. In any case, when we turned to leave we had a
treat as a Presidential motorcade left the White House. We couldn't see the
President through the tinted glass but it was exciting to watch the procession
anyway. This turned out to be our last stop prior to heading to the airport.
There was no parking for the buses so everyone had to say their goodbyes real
quick before heading off to the airport.
Before I sign off I want to thank you for trusting me with your children. The
kids have been fabulous, without a doubt the best group I've ever lead. I am
pretty sure they had a great time and I know they got a view of our country's
past that they will never forget.
By the way, next years trip has already started booking up space. On that
trip we will be heading to Harper's Ferry and Gettysburg, as well as some
stops that we did not have time to include this year. You are welcome to
join us even if you have already made the trip. Please tell a friend what
you thought of the trip and remind them to sign up early. While the two bus
thing worked out fine I'm not sure if I will take on two again next year so
space may be tight.
I hope you had as much fun as I did, enjoy the rest of your summer, and don't
forget...Cheap Trick will be at the Sonoma Marin Fair in Petaluma on June
22nd. See you here. Thanks again.
Yours truly,
Mike Eklund
