Mr. Ben goes to Washington.

Every year the 8th grade class has an opportunity to go to Washington DC.  They have to pay their own way, and during the school year they do fund raising opportunities to help with the costs.  I went with Amber 5 years ago, and had such a great time, I wanted to go with Ben as well.  It's through a program called World Strides.  They meet you at the airport in DC, and take you to your hotel and take you all over DC.  We started out getting on the bus to take us to the Omaha.

Our leader gave us all bright yellow shirts to wear so we wouldn't lose anybody!  See if you can find Ben in this picture at the airport.  We had a direct flight, and went strait to the hotel and tried to sleep, that first night is always exciting and the kids aren't interested in sleep.  The next morning breakfast was at 6:30, and there were quite a few sleepy kids. 

First stop, day one.  The Iwo Jima memorial, sorry I didn't get a full picture.  The weather was a little cool, and drizzleing, but warmer than Iowa! We also went to the Arlington Cemetary, and saw the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown solder, and a few class members were able to lay a wreath at the tomb, which is a very special honor.  Also while that was happening, there was a fighter jet fly-by right over our heads!  I don't know what it was for but it was incredible sounding!  There were four of them, and just as they got over head, the middle two split and dove strait up!  So amazing, and loud!!! 

We visited the white house.  Such a treat.  We walked all the way around it.  Very pretty, and well guarded!  

Washington Monument.   With Amber's class we got to go up inside it to the top.  But last August they had a pretty good earth-quake and it had some damage to it, so no visitors.  This picture was taken at the WW2 memorial.  It didn't quite turn out.  Ben should've had his hand under it so it looked like he was holding it.  But it was raining and I was trying to hurry because we were supposed to be getting on the bus.

 This is a new monument they have done for Martin Luther King Jr.  It's HUGE, I've noticed everything in DC is HUGE.  Notice his legs and feet aren't finished.  They did that on purpose to represent that his work wasn't finished before he died. 

This is a picture of us in the Fords Theater, where Lincoln was shot.  They had some local schools doing a little presentation on the speeches that Lincoln was famous for.
 

This is the big statue of Albert Einstein.  You can climb up it and touch his nose to make you smarter.  At least that's what they say. 

The whole group at the Air and Space museum.  Ben had a lot of fun here.  It's one of his favorites.

The Lincoln Memorial

 We went to Mount Vernon, which was the home of George Washington.  This is my favorite place.

Ben really getting into the Inaguration of George Washington.  Sure wish he could come back and fix things!  I think he would say "This is not what I meanteth!

 This is at the 9-11 memorial at the Pentagon.  This had a different meaning to me.  All the memorials in Washington are for events that happend long ago before I was born.  This happend during my lifetime.  Something I watched happen.  It's kinda weird to think that none of these kids remember it.  It doesn't seem that long ago.

 Ben's ultimte favorite place was the Museum of Natural History.  He's a dinosauer freek! 



Driving to the airport.  It was a busy 3 days!!!!

We covered almost everything you are able to see in this historical city!  The Holocaust museum, The spy museum, the American history museum, the Jefferson Memorial, the Korean war, Vietnam, and Rosevelt memorials. We took the subway, to see the National Cathedral, had lunch at Union Station, saw General Robert E. Lee's home, and much more!!! 

I really enjoyed going. Sam wants to go when he's in 8th grade, I keep giving Bret an opportunity to go, but he know's how much I like history, and he said I could go with him too!  So hopefully things will work out so we can go again.