| Our Trip to D.C. |
| This trip was something that we'd had planned for years and it was worth the wait! Tuesday, February 20th -- We depart from school at about 1:30 PM after the longest half day of school ever!!! Our bus drivers liked to speed, so we were out of Wisconsin and in Illinois in about a half an hour, even though it should have taken twice that long. I sat next to Katie, and in front of Megan E. and Melissa. Then there was a bunch of guys sitting around us. At about 4:30 we're in the middle of Chicago and it takes over an hour there (who planned we'd be there in the middle of rush hour?). Some of the guys around us had two-way radios and were talking to people on the other buses (there were 4 buses total;l two from our school, two from the other). They soon found out that they could talk to truckers around us, and they kept asking for the "Smokey Report" (asking where there were police). They kinda got in trouble later cuz they were playing music over the radio. We watched Dumb & Dumber on our bus, and with all the guys around us, the entire dialogue was recieted as the actors said it. Nothing like being stuck on a bus with a bunch of teenage guys who think they're HILARIOUS. We stopped for supper in Indiana, but I only bought candy (YUM, Crispy M&M's). I had a leftover Sub sandwich that I got that day (we had a reward party for Orchestra because we got first in a competition). After supper, we watched Notting Hill, but no one really paid any attention to it. We stopped once more at about 10 PM to get ready for bed, and then we had to settle down for the night. Katie slept in the back of the bus by some other people, so I got our two seats to myself. I woke up about every 2 hours cause I'd get to uncomfortable from my position. Sometime during the night, a guy that was sitting by me, Kody, started singing "Baby Got Back." He sang a lot of it, too, until someone threw their shoe at him. We stopped somewhere in Ohio around 1 PM to switch drivers. Our first driver was really quiet, and didn't say anything to us. All the guys said that he looked like Llars Ulrich from Metallica. But as we later found out, our new driver, Dave, was a lot more fun. Wednesday, February 21st-- We woke up in the middle of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Pennsylvania. We stopped at a cafeteria in Southbreeze for breakfast at about 6 AM Eastern Time. We went through some more mountains, and everyone started snapping pictures of the landscape -- it was so beautiful with the sun just rising and the countryside below, I hope the pictures I took turn out. We finally neared our first tour stop at about 7AM after 19 hours on the bus (can you say "GROGGY?"). We went to Ft. McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland. Can I note that this was the first time that I'd been in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, D.C., and Virginia. Before that, I'd only been to Wisconsin, my home state, Illionois (yuck) and Florida for my first vacation that didn't involve sleeping in a trailer or tent. The fort was cool, and I bought a snowglobe for myself cuz I collect them. Then we went on to go to the Nation Aquarium. We walked around the place for a while, and saw a dolphin show at noon, although it wasn't much better than the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. We went to the mall on the waterfront to eat lunch and shop around, and most of the guys went to Hooters. We went to a pizza place where there was a few dozen other people waiting, and it took forever to get our piece-of-crap-pizza-slices. Jenny was getting scared of all the birds around us (mostly seagulls) because someone brought up the Alfred Hitchcock movie Birds. After lunch, went looked around the shops, but there wasn't much. We went into a wind-up toy shop, though, and a couple people bought some stuff there. We went back to the front of the aquarium to wait for the buses. We stood around and talked for a while, and then the buses arrived and we went to Washington D.C. We went to the national cathedral where our principal and his wife met up with us (they flew there--wimps!). The cathedral was cool--really beautiful. I guess I saw my first president while I was there, because they had the coffin with President Taft in it in middle of the church. After we left, we to the National Zoo we went straight to the panda exhibit because it was late and nothing else at the zoo was open.I was one of the first people there (the zoo was desserted except for us) and both of them were still outside so I got some pics of them. Then some of my friends and I walked around looking for the penguins, but they didn't have any!!! We were late coming back to the bus, but so were some other people so it was okay. From the zoo, (after driving around to see some more sights) we went to a Country Kitchen in Alexandria, Virginia. Another school from our area, Lodi, was there, too. But it was a big restaurant. After we were done with supper, (and some guy flipped our bus driver off in the parking lot) we went to our hotel. My roommates were Carolyn and Katie (Katie's in one of the pics below). They left the room almost right after we got there, but I wanted to be alone & relax for a while (after a 19 hour bus ride, I don't see who wouldn't) so I unpacked and watched "Temptation Island." I think I went to bed around 11, and cuz we had to be up at seven the next day. Thursday, February 22nd -- So much for waking up at seven. I set the alarm to wake up at 6:15, (neither of my roommates had any problem with me waking up first) but I guess I set it wrong & I woke up to the Chaperones banging on the door. We made it down to breakfast late (at least we'd showered) I'm starting to forget some of the stuff we did, so bear with me. It was snowing that day, and all the schools were closed (they only got a couple inches!!!). We walked around without coats on and people were looking at us like we were either insane or like we were poor children that were deprived of jackets. We went to the Old Post office to pick up our tour guides. Our guide's name was Luann. We went to the Capital from there. Luann showed us around in their, and showed us where Congress & the Senate meet. i think we went to the Vietnam Memorial next. Its a wall that's built into the ground with all of the names of people who died engraved in it. We also visited the Women's Vietnam memorial and the Iwo Jima memorial. We went to the United States Holocaust Museum that day too. I have to say that I almost cried at some of the exhibits there. When we were back on the bus after we were done, everyone was really quiet. That day we also went to the National Archives, and the National Musuem of Buildings. (The pic below of Katie was taken there). After we were done with the museums, we went on to the Korean Memorial. With all the snow on the 19 statues, it almost looked like they'd move at any second. We moved on to the Lincoln Memorial next. We would have also went to the Washington monument, but they were repairing the elevator so I only got a picture of it from the outside. Anyways, at the Lincoln Memorial, it was really slippery and Jesse L. slid into a sign and a security guard kiceked him out. He had to stay at the hotel I think for the rest of the trip. That's actually kinda too bad, because the trip cost like $600 and he isn't that bad of a guy. Oh yea, here's an interesting fact: the reason why Lincoln is sitting down is because no statue in Washington can be taller than Freedom, the statue on top of the capital (which is about 19 and half feet). They thought that Lincoln wouldn't look powerful at that height, so they made him sitting down. Whether or not you think that is interesting... We went to the Pentagon City Mall for supper that night. We got coupons from our guides so we could for free and spend our money on other stuff. I only had time to buy a hat that said Washington D.C. on it. When we got back to the hotel we were supposed to have a dance, but the D.J. was late because of the "storm." We found out that there had been blizzard-like conditions that morning and that people on the high-way had been going 80 MPR. I thought that people from Illinois were the only ones dumb enough to do that. Well, the result was an 116 car pile up on the high way back to our hotel. I used that as an excuse to call my mom so I could tell her that we were all right. I guess I'm not afraid now to say I was getting home sick and I almost cried when I talked to her. At least I wasn't the only person crying. Ms. Pohlcamp (a teacher at our school and one of the chaperones) said later that a lot of people were homesick or upset from the visit to the Holocaust Museum. The D.J. came a while later, and we had a dance that lasted about 15 minutes. Friday, February 23rd -- We started the day with breakfast at the hotel and a stop at the FDR Memorial. It has four sections to it, one for each of FDR. The fourth one is left uncompleted because he died during that term. We went to Ford's Theater (where Lincoln was shot) later. It was hard to get there, though, because a bunch of guys selling fake Oakley's were in our way. At the theater a woman told us eveything that happened the day Lincoln was shot. They had museum of everything from Lincoln's assasination, and had they had everything from the gun he was shot with to the gloves his niece was wearing at the time. We then walked across the street to the Peterson House, the place were Lincoln died after he was shot. Afterwards, we went to the FBI Building, and I don't think it was worth it. We watched a short movie that must have been intended for pre-schoolers and then a guy showed us some guns that the FBI uses. For all that, we had to spend like 45 minutes going through security. That day we finally went to the White House (my future home!) It was cool, but you only get to see a few rooms, and it takes forever to get in. Bush had just left when we were arriving there. They had 3 helicopters leaving the premise, 2 were decoys, the other was the one that Bush was in. We had a half hour drive to Mount Vernon after we left the White House. Mount Vernon was George Washington's home on the Potomac River. We got to see the house, and the tomb where Washington and his family are buried. Mount Vernon was one of my favorite places that we visited. As George Washington said, "No estate in United America is more pleasantly situated than this..." We went to a mall called something like the Crystal Mall for supper at around 7:00. Then we went back to the hotel so that we could get ready for the play. We left for the Kennedy Center around 8:00. We saw "Shear Madness" there. It's a play about a murder that occurs above a hair sallon, and everyone there is a suspect. In the end, the audience decides who's guilty. We chose Barbara DeMarco, but it could have been anyone. Saturday, February 24th -- The first place we went to was Arlington National Cemetery. We walked around and looked at some of the monuments. Our school and the other that came along with us laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. After that we went to Arlington House (the home of Robert E. Lee, the head of the Confederate Army). The cemetery was put on his plantation during the civil war. At one point in the war, General Lee hadn't paid his taxes, and the Union was running out of places to bury there dead, they thought it would be a good revenge to bury his enemies on his home. After we left the house, we went to a gift shop where we took the "Waiting" picture. Then we took the subway to the National Mall. |
| ("The Magical Mystery Tour" by the Beatles is what's playing in the background-- I thought it was the most fitting midi I have.) |
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| My Pictures... Katie slidding down the banaster... The five of us at the FDR Memorial... Megan & Lindsey in a cell at Ft. McHenry... Waiting... Where went went... View of D.C. at night... The White House... |
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| Since 4/5/01 |
| More to come....... |