What a great final day in Washington DC! First of all, I want parents and family to know how wonderful your students have been all week so far. We have received so many compliments and praise from other tourists, businesses, and employees at all of the sites we have visited. A gentlemen from Cuba was visiting a cousin that we met at Arlington Cemetery, and he wanted to take a photo of some of our students because he was so impressed by their respectful and reverent behavior and attitude, which including their dress. He wanted to take this photo home to Cuba to show friends and family back there that this is how youth of a country should behave and dress when at important places to a nation. The Dutch news reporters we met last night were extremely impressed with our students as well.
We began the day at the Newseum, a museum to news and journalism. Students enjoyed exhibits on Covering Vietnam and the Civil Rights Movement at 50 years. These were both special exhibits. They also found the 9/11 exhibit moving as well as the Pulitzer Prize winning photographs. They saw sections of the Berlin Wall and a guard tower from Checkpoint Charlie, and the memorial to journalists that have died covering the news. Next we headed to the Smithsonians. Students divided up into groups headed to several different museums. The first groups went to the Botanic Gardens and enjoyed the beautiful flowers. The group at the American Indian museum enjoyed the beaded converse tennis shoes and the exhibit on how Native Americans perceive an issue versus the American government’s perspective. The group at the Air and Space group enjoyed seeing the Spirit of St. Louis and the SpaceShip One up close and personal, as well as the Mercury and Gemini capsules flown by John Glenn and Ed White without their protective cases while they are being restored for the 40th anniversary of the museum next year. The group at the National Gallery of Art found the only Leonardo da Vinci painting in the Western Hemisphere, as well as works of art by Raphael, Donatello, the ballerina statues of Degas, as well as Monet’s Footbridge painting. The second round of museum visits had a new group at the Air and Space Museum, and groups at the Natural History and American History museums. The Natural history group found the Hope Diamond, the world’s largest blue diamond, as well as enjoying the mummies! The American History group loved the Star-Spangled Banner and the pop culture displays. Then it was off to Arlington Cemetery. We paid our respects to Presidents Taft and Kennedy, Robert Todd Lincoln – the only one of his sons to live long enough to be an adult, the crews of the Space Shuttles Challenger and Columbia, as well as all of the men and women who served our country that are known and unknown in the cemetery. We watched the Changing of the Guard Ceremony, visited Arlington House at the top of the hills. After an excellent dinner at Kora’s we visited the 9/11 Memorial at the Pentagon. Since the 8th graders were just tiny children when it happened, the chaperones shared our stories of where we were and our memories of those tragic days before the students entered the memorial site. It has been a great trip so far. Tomorrow is the final day. We are packing up here at the hotel so we can load the luggage in the morning. We will make one final stop here in DC in the morning at the Marine Corp Memorial (Iwo Jima) before heading to Jamestowne and Williamsburg. Then it will be the overnight bus ride and seeing all of the families bright and early Thursday morning back in Rensselaer! Steps – 20,699 Total – 77,875 steps (35.56 miles)
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6/1/2015 2 Comments News Media and Leadership We started the day off on an interesting note. There was a fire drill at the hotel as we were getting ready to get on the bus. We had to exit the building, but there was not a fire. Everything was fine, but for the safety of everyone we exited when asked by the hotel staff. Our first tour site was the US Capitol Building. The students watched the orientation movie at the underground Visitor’s Center, and then toured the building. They saw the Rotunda and the dome, the 8 paintings in the Rotunda, as well as the Old House Chambers, which is now Statuary Hall. Then we walked through the tunnel to the Library Congress, where the students saw the Great Reading Room, which most people recognize from National Treasure. After a stop at the Library of Congress we walked over to the Supreme Court. There was a decision handed down this morning on a case and we met the CNN news reporter, Pamela Brown, who is their Justice Correspondent who covers the Supreme Court. She explained the basics of the case and the decision. It was not a constitutional issues, but rather a different area of legal issues. We walked down Capitol Hill and headed to the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden.
We had pizza delivered to us there and we sat in the beautiful garden to eat lunch. Students kicked off their shoes and soaked their feet in the huge fountain in the garden while others enjoyed the modern art sculptures or time in the shade. Then we visited the National Archives to see the Charters of Freedom – the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. They found Abraham Lincoln’s face in a mural that hangs in the rotunda, then explored the Public Vaults. They saw a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation along with other documents that have been saved by the Archives. We gave the students some more down time after the Archives in the sculpture garden. The downtime was very welcome after the heat, humidity, and walking over the past few days. We ate dinner at Union Station and then tried to go to the Nationals baseball game. Just as we got off of the bus and under a very large tent outside the stadium, the rain and wind hit. The tent was large enough that we were all very safe. Once the storm broke the buses picked us up since the game was cancelled. We headed back to the hotel and the students will have a little time to relax there tonight. Tomorrow will be a busy walking day for a last day in DC. We start at the Newseum, a museum about the news and journalism. We will also visit the various Smithsonian museums and Arlington Cemetery. We will end our final day in DC at the 9/11 Memorial at the Pentagon. It has been a fast week, but we have made tons of wonderful memories! Steps – 12,431 Total – 57,176 steps |