Museums and Memorials - Day Two

Hello to all our blog watchers. We have really enjoyed all of your comments so please let us know that you are reading. Mrs. Tisha read the posts to everyone today, one at a time, and it was like the show Survivor where everyone gets to hear from their loved ones. I wanted to straighten out one misconception, Mrs. Stephanie is the master photographer here, not Mrs. Amy. She is doing a great job documenting our trip and there are many more photos that you haven't seen. I handed blog duty over last night after I was hit with a terrible migraine and spent supper time over a trashcan in McDonalds. The good news is that Laurie, Logan V., Chase, and myself took a taxi ride to the hotel and witnessed the presidential motorcade leaving the White House. The cab driver said it was the president because it was followed by an ambulance. Today was a better day though and here is our fascinating account of the day. Today started great with a ride on the subway. The highlight of our subway ride occurred at the end when Mr. Andy apprehended a young man that had just stolen an ipod from another man leaving the subway. Mr. Andy told the young man to give the ipod back and he did. As we exited the subway, we told the police and they were able to catch the young man and the other people that he had with him. The police came and found Mr. Andy and took him to the police station to get a statement from him. The "victim" had disappeared. Laurie turned the incident into a learning experience for the group. The group will tell you that they have learned a lot about life in the city on this trip including negative and positive uses of our right to freedom of speech. We learned that just because someone utilized their right to freedom of speech doesn't mean you have to listen! Our first museum this morning was the Museum of Natural History. Everyone wanted to see the T-Rex (Rexie) of Night at the Museum fame. We found him along with lots of stuffed animals, sea creatures, and prehistoric animals. Before we left the museum, the females, Mr. Andy, and Ben took a peek at the Hope Diamond which was declared to be "gorgeous". By this time it was time for lunch and a food court in the Reagan building filled our bellies. The Museum of American History was next on the list where we saw fun things such as Old locomotives, early automobiles and buses, the ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz, Kermit the frog himself, an entire exhibit on Abraham Lincoln including his hat, The original Star Spangled Banner, and much more. Mrs. Stephanie broke a rule and took a picture of the Star Spangled Banner. It wasn't her fault that she missed the tiny sign that said not to when she entered the room. You get to benefit from her naughtiness! We took an ice cream break and walked to the Washington Monument where Adam gave his speech from his research. Some of the boys played an impromptu game on the lawn before we moved on to the Holocaust Museum. We did not have as much time here as we would have liked, but we spent an hour in the museum and I think that everyone was able to get the general idea of why we were there and what we were learning. Some were impacted more than others, but all will remember what they learned. Deuteronomy 4:9 is quoted at the end "Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them." I believe they will. We then walked over to the WWII memorial at the foot of the reflecting pool at the Mall. I was amazed at the knowledge these kids had of the details of the WWII, the Korean, and the Vietnam War. Mrs. Tisha did a great job preparing them for this trip and they have learned things that my own children can not tell you having left high school. Mrs. Tisha would ask them questions and someone would give a report at each memorial spot. It was amazing!! After leaving the WWII memorial, we walked down the reflecting pool toward Lincoln Memorial. To the right of Lincoln Memorial is the Korean War memorial. The statues of men walking through the field is haunting. There are 19 figures that reflect 19 images in the granite wall beside it. This totals 38 which represents the 38th parallel also known as the line of demarcation. From there we walked up the gazillion steps to the Lincoln Memorial. The kids had a great time trying to find all of the misspelled words engraved on the wall. We took a little break on the steps before walking back down. We then went to the Vietnam Memorial Wall. By the time got there, exhaustion had set in, our stomachs were growling, and we had the choice of walking a mile back to our hotel or walking a mile to the subway station where we would ride the subway back and walk another 1/4 mile to our hotel. We took the straight shot home where we ate a great meal in an Italian restaurant in the hotel. The arcade in the hotel was full with our students until 11 p.m. At this point in the trip, Mrs. Tisha's rule of NO SUGAR or CAFFEINE after 6 p.m. and bedtime at 10 p.m. has completely flown out the window, BUT every kid has hit the pillow hard when the lights turn out. Granted it is 11:54 and our lights are still on, but I told you that I was not going to be blogging in the bathroom!! So, I hope you have enjoyed this post. We are sleeping in a little tomorrow and have hired a charter bus at the last minute to drive us around tomorrow because we can't walk another step!!! Don't worry, the price didn't go up! Watch for another blog post tomorrow.