Gonna See It In Color: What a week....

It's been one of those weeks....I won't go into details, but it was equivalent to Finals week in school, and we all know how those are. At any rate, it was still a good week overall because of everything the kids got to see. A couple of the adults and I just didn't get along...

Monday I went and stood in line for Holocaust Museum tickets with Maria and Char who were kind enough to volunteer to go with me. Then Maria drove me to the airport so that I could meet my group there. I found them grabbing their luggage from the carousel as I walked in, which was perfect timing. The bus on the other hand didn't have perfect timing and we had to wait 45 minutes for it to arrive. After finally getting on the bus we went to the Old Post Office Pavilion for lunch, followed by the FDR Memorial (my favorite presidential one!) and then the Holocaust Museum. Because this group was from Minnesota and had some Jewish and Russian families, the kids were emotionally involved in the Holocaust Museum making it that much harder to pull them out for Nightview Part 1, which included the Vietnam War, Lincoln and Korean War Memorials.

Tuesday we drove to Gettysburg in record time, explored the cyclorama and museum, and then went on a guided bus tour. The tour guide was really good with the kids and got them involved to physically show how soldiers lined up and marched, it was really cool. We then found lunch nearby, quickly ate and then got on the road for Arlington. Made it to Arlington in record time also, got checked in and found our tram. They've apparently started using automated GPS triggered commentaries, and it just isn't the same as having a real live person talking to you, so I had to make up for it after the Changing of the Guard, when we sat down in the Ampitheater and had a discussion and I tried to answer questions for them. This was followed by dinner at the Reagan International Building's food court, and then going to Ford's Theater for a performance of "1776." It's a great show, and if you're in DC this spring and get the chance go. The best part of the show, for me, was that I was able to connect the people the kids saw onstage to what we were seeing in the city, especially at the Jefferson Memorial.

Wednesday started with a tour of the Capitol. Silly me, I made sure to tell all the kids not to bring their water bottles, and I forgot mine was in my bag....there goes a $10 water bottle. We then went through the tunnel to the Library of Congress and did tours there. The group was split between two tours, and I went on the one that was focused on the history of the documents which founded America. It was a good tour, but not one that kept the kids engaged enough, so they mentioned that later. We followed LOC with a trip to the Smithsonians, and they decided to go to Air and Space to eat and then explore. The lines for food were horrendous, but they got everyone through in a decent amount of time (I think...) and still had lots of time to explore. I ate and then worked on some notes about the week so far and finished up my notes to N4-HC delegates. After we finished at the Air and Space Museum we went back to the Center for dinner and then back out for the second part of Nightview, which included Embassy Row, WWII Memorial, Jefferson and MLK Memorials. It was cold out, so the kids didn't stay anywhere super long, which was just fine with me!

Thursday we stopped by the White House for pictures, and then headed to the Supreme Court building. One of the chaperones on the trip writes law text books, so he talked about the judicial branch of the government. Unfortunately the line was too long to go in, but we went across the street to the building and the kids identified the different types of architecture. Then we walked all the way back down the hill and onto the mall. It was "crucial" for the kids to see how things lined up and how big the mall actually was, even though they didn't really get to do so because we were running late. We left for lunch at Generous George's Positive Pizza, which took 45 minutes to get to. We got there on time, but it wasn't set up the way it was supposed to be, so we were a half hour late leaving. This put us at Mt. Vernon 45 minutes late, and we couldn't get into the Mansion tour until 5:15, 15 minutes after we were supposed to have left Mt. Vernon. I got the group through the orientation video and started out to the tomb, and then found the bus with my notebook full of phone numbers to get ahold of food services to make sure they would still be serving dinner at 7 or 7:30. Dinner was slated to be served until 7:30, so I knew we would be good to go, even if we had to cut out Iwo Jima, which I knew would not make the coordinator very happy. We zipped right through the Mansion, and then booked it back to the bus, after collecting everyone who once again walked at the pace of a snail (I swear Mom, you would not have been happy with this group. Even I was out-walking them). Any how, we left Mt. Vernon at 6, which I thought would be perfect timing for us to swing by Iwo Jima really quick and then go home via Fox Hall. Well, it was perfect timing, but stupid rush hour traffic slowed us up, so we didn't get out at Iwo Jima like I had wanted to, but we definitely got back at 7:20 pm. I ushered everyone straight out of the bus into the Cafe, and then we had our History Bowl workshop at 8:30, which I pushed the time back to. The workshop didn't go like I had hoped, but it was kinda my fault because I didn't make sure to go over everything that was on it. I'll know for next time what to go over, and a co-worker suggested doing "red-light" questions to make sure and cover everything. Next time!

Friday morning I sent them on their way to the airport on a bus :) I got a hug from one chaperone and another made sure to tell me not to be too hard on myself about how the week went, noting that wanting to make changes in how things went marks a good teacher. It was a nice compliment after a rough week....

Here's a few pics from our adventures.