Hi everyone!
It is the last day of spring break, and I will now finish my account of my trip to DC.
Day 1: We landed in DC and headed to dinner right away. Then we headed to our first monuments: the Korea, Vietnam, and Lincoln Memorials. It was dark, so it was hard to see the images on the reflecting walls, but I was still able to appreciate the art work. There were 19 steel soldiers, which, with the images on the reflecting wall, made 38. At the Vietnam Memorial, there were names of all the 58,272 fallen or missing soldiers and workers who fought in the war. 8 of these are the names of women. Our tour guide showed us the name of one of her friends from high school who fought in the war and did not make it back. It was a very humbling experience to see all the people who fought and gave their lives for our country. The last stop was the Lincoln Memorial, with the gigantic stone statue of Lincoln. The Gettysburg Address and Lincoln's second inaugural speech are carved into the walls on either side of Lincoln. In the second inaugural address, the F in the word "FUTURE" is written as an E. The bottom line was later filled in, but is still visible from up close. I would guess that whoever was in charge of carving the speech would be incredibly embarrassed. I would. But the mistake leaves a great piece of trivia and a sort of scavenger hunt for tourists.
After we were finished with the memorials, we headed back to the hotel to get a good night sleep. Sort of.
Day 2: We woke up bright and early and headed down for breakfast. Then we got onto the bus right away and headed to Ford's Theater. Ford's Theatre is the theatre that President Lincoln visited a week after the end of the Civil War. He was going with his wife and friends to see a show called Our American Cousin, and, while he was watching the play, Lincoln was shot in the head by a man named James Wilkes Booth. We got to go inside the theater, which was recently renovated in 1968 after decades of disuse. Then we got to go to the house across the street where Lincoln was rushed to after the attack. The bed that they placed him in was almost a foot to short for the tall man, so he had to be placed diagonally on the bed. After touring the house, we got back on the bus and headed to Mount Vernon, the estate of George Washington. Mount Vernon is still a working plantation that is run by workers dressed in period clothing and using some of the original, restored tools. We got to see a blacksmith and a flute player, and we even got to see the slaves' quarters and the house. It seemed unreal to me that people lived without our technology and electronics. Everything seemed so archaic and unreal, but it must have felt very real for them. There was no other way of life in Washington's time. Next we got to visit the house of another president, or multiple presidents actually; the White House. We were only able to look at it through the front fence, but it was still impressive. There was a huge lawn and at least a dozen black cars parked in the lot. Imagine having hundreds of people visit your house and taking pictures every day! That would be so odd. Our next stop was the cherry blossoms and the Jefferson, Roosevelt, and MLK memorials. The Jefferson Memorial was a lot like the Lincoln Memorial: a Greek-style building with pillars and inscriptions on the walls. This building was round, though, and the inscriptions were excerpts from some of Jefferson's documents like the Declaration of Independence. The FDR Memorial, or Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, is the only memorial that has been specifically made to be handicap-accessible. To enter the MLK Memorial, you must walk through a set of stone archways engraved with excerpts from Martin Luther King Jr.'s speeches. King is carved at the back of a third stone pile. After looking around, we headed back to the hotel. A few kids, including myself, went for a quick swim before heading off to bed.
Day 3: The next day, which was rainy and cold, we left bright and early for the Smithsonian. The first building that we went to was the Natural History Museum. There were hundreds of ancient skeletons and bones, including a giant elephant in the middle of the building. We were allowed to wander for about an hour and a half. We got to see the Hope Diamond and old artifacts and fossils. There were replicas of ancients animals, including one that I think was supposed to be an ancient chinchilla but looked more like a Gremlin. There were skeletons of tapirs and dinosaurs and mammoths and saber-tooth tigers. Next we went to the Museum of American History. We were supposed to go to the Air and Space Museum, which we were all excited for, but the schedule was switched. At the American History Museum, we got to see the old American flag that our nation anthem is inspired by. There were artifacts from wars and iconic American heirlooms. Then we headed to the Arlington Nation Cemetery. We walked all the way up to the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and witnessed the changing of the guards. We stood in the rain while we watched the changing of the wreaths too. Then we walked through the cemetery and looked at the hundred of gravestones. My Sherlock-obsessed mind was excited when I, with the help of my also obsessed friend Isabelle, found gravestones with the names Holmes, Watson, and Hudson, all relatively near each other. We did not, unfortunately, find a gravestone inscribed "Lestrade". Next, we rode on the bus to outside the Pentagon Memorial. We walked through the secret tunnel to the Memorial. By this time, it was pouring and had become about 25 degrees Fahrenheit. In the dark, we got to see the glowing pools under each bench-like memorial. Like all of DC's memorials, every aspect of the Memorial was a form a symbolism. By the time we began to walk back, it was beginning to hail. By the time we'd braved the open stretch to the tunnel, the hail was beginning to bounce off the pavement and hit us painfully. Having not experiencing hail in a very long time, I was surprised at how painful it was. Once we made it onto the bus, we all looked like we had frozen hearts, and felt like it too. It literally took 10 minutes on the bus for me to regain feeling in my hands. The sensation of slowly beginning to maintain homeostasis honestly felt like melting until I felt more numb than feeling-less, and then like I had pins and needles all over my body. To us, the bus was like a sauna, though we could still see our breath in the air. We voted to stay in the bus as we drove pass Iwo Jima, the memorial that depicts the famous war photograph of the six soldiers holding up the American Flag.
Day 4: The next we went to the Newseum, also known as the News Museum. We got to see a 4-D video on news. 4-D movies are seen in 3-D, and have the added senses of motion and feel. Wind is added to the room and sometimes you're sprayed with mist. At the Newseum, we were able to ride in a glass elevator to the top floor, where we could see all the way to the Capitol Building. There were also pieces of the Berlin Wall and the Twin Towers. It was very cool to see how news and the way it is delivered has progressed over the years. Our next stop for the day was the Holocaust Museum. In respect for survivors, we were not allowed to take pictures. The 'journey' began on the top floor with the end of World War I and the Nazi rise to power. The trip then spiraled downward to the bottom floor, representing the degeneration of Germany and the rest of the world. There were honest accounts and pictures of concentration camps. The pictures and videos were terrifying and reminded us of how terribly this period in our world history was. After journeying through the down spiral of the Holocaust, we got back on the bus for a two hour drive to Gettysburg. Once there, we enjoyed an all-you-can-eat Southern-style buffet, and then headed to our new hotel.
Day 5: The next morning, we visited the battlefield and all the monuments and statues dedicated to the brave soldiers who fought there. We got to see cannons that were used in the war, and some old relics that were found afterward. Then we headed back to DC to the Congress building and the Library of Congress. This was one of my favorites, though we were, regretfully, not allowed to touch the books or even go near the books, just look at them from behind a glass panel. There were hundreds and hundreds of books, all piled onto hundreds of shelves. Then we headed to the airport for our flight home. As the plane took off, we said goodbye to DC. We made it home around 11:30 after a 7 hour, and I was glad to finally get a good night sleep in my own bed.
Thank you to everyone who donated to my DC fund. This trip was really a worthwhile experience. It was the first big school trip I've ever taken, and it was really fun, especially because I got to go with my friends. I wouldn't have been able to take this trip without your generous support. The trip was both a great learning experience and an inspirational tour. I'd never been to DC before, and I was so glad that I got to go this time. The city both beautiful and exciting, and it was great to learn the history of everything and visit the monuments to our brave predecessors. The trip really encouraged me and made me want to make a difference in our world.
Thank you, and thank you for reading my blog!
Love,
K
It is the last day of spring break, and I will now finish my account of my trip to DC.
Day 1: We landed in DC and headed to dinner right away. Then we headed to our first monuments: the Korea, Vietnam, and Lincoln Memorials. It was dark, so it was hard to see the images on the reflecting walls, but I was still able to appreciate the art work. There were 19 steel soldiers, which, with the images on the reflecting wall, made 38. At the Vietnam Memorial, there were names of all the 58,272 fallen or missing soldiers and workers who fought in the war. 8 of these are the names of women. Our tour guide showed us the name of one of her friends from high school who fought in the war and did not make it back. It was a very humbling experience to see all the people who fought and gave their lives for our country. The last stop was the Lincoln Memorial, with the gigantic stone statue of Lincoln. The Gettysburg Address and Lincoln's second inaugural speech are carved into the walls on either side of Lincoln. In the second inaugural address, the F in the word "FUTURE" is written as an E. The bottom line was later filled in, but is still visible from up close. I would guess that whoever was in charge of carving the speech would be incredibly embarrassed. I would. But the mistake leaves a great piece of trivia and a sort of scavenger hunt for tourists.
After we were finished with the memorials, we headed back to the hotel to get a good night sleep. Sort of.
Day 2: We woke up bright and early and headed down for breakfast. Then we got onto the bus right away and headed to Ford's Theater. Ford's Theatre is the theatre that President Lincoln visited a week after the end of the Civil War. He was going with his wife and friends to see a show called Our American Cousin, and, while he was watching the play, Lincoln was shot in the head by a man named James Wilkes Booth. We got to go inside the theater, which was recently renovated in 1968 after decades of disuse. Then we got to go to the house across the street where Lincoln was rushed to after the attack. The bed that they placed him in was almost a foot to short for the tall man, so he had to be placed diagonally on the bed. After touring the house, we got back on the bus and headed to Mount Vernon, the estate of George Washington. Mount Vernon is still a working plantation that is run by workers dressed in period clothing and using some of the original, restored tools. We got to see a blacksmith and a flute player, and we even got to see the slaves' quarters and the house. It seemed unreal to me that people lived without our technology and electronics. Everything seemed so archaic and unreal, but it must have felt very real for them. There was no other way of life in Washington's time. Next we got to visit the house of another president, or multiple presidents actually; the White House. We were only able to look at it through the front fence, but it was still impressive. There was a huge lawn and at least a dozen black cars parked in the lot. Imagine having hundreds of people visit your house and taking pictures every day! That would be so odd. Our next stop was the cherry blossoms and the Jefferson, Roosevelt, and MLK memorials. The Jefferson Memorial was a lot like the Lincoln Memorial: a Greek-style building with pillars and inscriptions on the walls. This building was round, though, and the inscriptions were excerpts from some of Jefferson's documents like the Declaration of Independence. The FDR Memorial, or Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, is the only memorial that has been specifically made to be handicap-accessible. To enter the MLK Memorial, you must walk through a set of stone archways engraved with excerpts from Martin Luther King Jr.'s speeches. King is carved at the back of a third stone pile. After looking around, we headed back to the hotel. A few kids, including myself, went for a quick swim before heading off to bed.
Day 3: The next day, which was rainy and cold, we left bright and early for the Smithsonian. The first building that we went to was the Natural History Museum. There were hundreds of ancient skeletons and bones, including a giant elephant in the middle of the building. We were allowed to wander for about an hour and a half. We got to see the Hope Diamond and old artifacts and fossils. There were replicas of ancients animals, including one that I think was supposed to be an ancient chinchilla but looked more like a Gremlin. There were skeletons of tapirs and dinosaurs and mammoths and saber-tooth tigers. Next we went to the Museum of American History. We were supposed to go to the Air and Space Museum, which we were all excited for, but the schedule was switched. At the American History Museum, we got to see the old American flag that our nation anthem is inspired by. There were artifacts from wars and iconic American heirlooms. Then we headed to the Arlington Nation Cemetery. We walked all the way up to the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and witnessed the changing of the guards. We stood in the rain while we watched the changing of the wreaths too. Then we walked through the cemetery and looked at the hundred of gravestones. My Sherlock-obsessed mind was excited when I, with the help of my also obsessed friend Isabelle, found gravestones with the names Holmes, Watson, and Hudson, all relatively near each other. We did not, unfortunately, find a gravestone inscribed "Lestrade". Next, we rode on the bus to outside the Pentagon Memorial. We walked through the secret tunnel to the Memorial. By this time, it was pouring and had become about 25 degrees Fahrenheit. In the dark, we got to see the glowing pools under each bench-like memorial. Like all of DC's memorials, every aspect of the Memorial was a form a symbolism. By the time we began to walk back, it was beginning to hail. By the time we'd braved the open stretch to the tunnel, the hail was beginning to bounce off the pavement and hit us painfully. Having not experiencing hail in a very long time, I was surprised at how painful it was. Once we made it onto the bus, we all looked like we had frozen hearts, and felt like it too. It literally took 10 minutes on the bus for me to regain feeling in my hands. The sensation of slowly beginning to maintain homeostasis honestly felt like melting until I felt more numb than feeling-less, and then like I had pins and needles all over my body. To us, the bus was like a sauna, though we could still see our breath in the air. We voted to stay in the bus as we drove pass Iwo Jima, the memorial that depicts the famous war photograph of the six soldiers holding up the American Flag.
Day 4: The next we went to the Newseum, also known as the News Museum. We got to see a 4-D video on news. 4-D movies are seen in 3-D, and have the added senses of motion and feel. Wind is added to the room and sometimes you're sprayed with mist. At the Newseum, we were able to ride in a glass elevator to the top floor, where we could see all the way to the Capitol Building. There were also pieces of the Berlin Wall and the Twin Towers. It was very cool to see how news and the way it is delivered has progressed over the years. Our next stop for the day was the Holocaust Museum. In respect for survivors, we were not allowed to take pictures. The 'journey' began on the top floor with the end of World War I and the Nazi rise to power. The trip then spiraled downward to the bottom floor, representing the degeneration of Germany and the rest of the world. There were honest accounts and pictures of concentration camps. The pictures and videos were terrifying and reminded us of how terribly this period in our world history was. After journeying through the down spiral of the Holocaust, we got back on the bus for a two hour drive to Gettysburg. Once there, we enjoyed an all-you-can-eat Southern-style buffet, and then headed to our new hotel.
Day 5: The next morning, we visited the battlefield and all the monuments and statues dedicated to the brave soldiers who fought there. We got to see cannons that were used in the war, and some old relics that were found afterward. Then we headed back to DC to the Congress building and the Library of Congress. This was one of my favorites, though we were, regretfully, not allowed to touch the books or even go near the books, just look at them from behind a glass panel. There were hundreds and hundreds of books, all piled onto hundreds of shelves. Then we headed to the airport for our flight home. As the plane took off, we said goodbye to DC. We made it home around 11:30 after a 7 hour, and I was glad to finally get a good night sleep in my own bed.
Thank you to everyone who donated to my DC fund. This trip was really a worthwhile experience. It was the first big school trip I've ever taken, and it was really fun, especially because I got to go with my friends. I wouldn't have been able to take this trip without your generous support. The trip was both a great learning experience and an inspirational tour. I'd never been to DC before, and I was so glad that I got to go this time. The city both beautiful and exciting, and it was great to learn the history of everything and visit the monuments to our brave predecessors. The trip really encouraged me and made me want to make a difference in our world.
Thank you, and thank you for reading my blog!
Love,
K
Hi Keira, Thank you for writing about your visit to Washington. I was born in Washington in 1952, moved away with my parents as a baby, and we returned and lived in Washington fro 1960 to 1965. I was 8-13 years old during those years. I have visited and toured all the places you have mentioned so your story brought back lots of fond memories. It's such a great city. I'm so glad you were able to have this experience. Mount Vernon is one of my favorite stops. It is so peaceful there. Also when I lived in Washington, my parents would drive us up to see your great grandfather, great grandmother, and great aunts in Darien, Connecticut for many Thanksgiving dinners. Washington, D.C. is one of my very favorite cities. Thanks for sharing! Cousin Jim
ReplyDeleteKeira,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you learned and experienced so much. Washington is a magical place, and I am so happy you were able to experience it with your peers. My field trip and summer youth council in DC. are still some of my best school age memories. Thanks for sharing! Miss you KiKi! xox Aunt Shannon
Hi Keira,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great experience for you and your class! We took your Dad, Aunt Tara and Uncle Toby to D.C. in 1984 when your father was just about the same age as you are now.Sorry you had such a rude introduction to early Spring in the Northeast. That same Wednesday when it was so cold, Nana and I flew into Boston from sunny San Diego and there was snow on the ground and our car was covered with ice.In a few days, it was in the 70's and eveyone was happy again.
I always enjoy your style of writing and hope you will update your blog on a regular basis to exercise those literary muscles. Se you at graduation time the end of May!
Love,
Papa
Way to go, K-dawg! I've never been to DC, but I lived vicariously through you a bit just now :)
ReplyDeleteHey Keira,
ReplyDeleteReally proud of what a great writer and documenter you have become. Glad you had a great trip. We missed you and we are glad to have you with us. Can't wait to share the London and Portugal adventure with you!!
Right on!!! I was about your age when I did a tour of DC with your Mom an Grandma. We were visiting Tia who was doing Jesuit Volunteer Corps in DC. My favorite place was Mt Vernon, because I loved seeing how they cooked back then, using the stove fires. I also took a school trip my junior year of high school where we went to a lot of the museums and memorials. I'm so happy that you had a great time and I can't wait to hear more about your stories when I see you soon!!! XOXO~Crazy Aunt Sarah
ReplyDelete