| Students
visit Washington D.C.
Our trip started with a flight out of Spokane on June 5. We flew to Washington DC with our first stop at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Students experienced many kinds of fossils, stuffed creatures of ocean life. We saw the Hope Diamond, the world’s largest blue diamond. We finished and headed to dinner at the world famous Carmine’s, a place that served big plates of pasta and other Italian foods. From dinner we headed to view the Lincoln Memorial. Our first night’s stay was at College Park, Maryland, right by the University of Maryland campus. Day 2 started early with breakfast and then a bus ride to the Vietnam Memorial. We saw the men’s memorial as well as the famous wall and the women’s memorial. We then traveled to the Einstein Memorial in front of the Academy of Science. We visited places such as the Crypt, which was originally intended to have the tomb of George and Martha Washington, the Old Supreme Court chamber and the famous Capitol Rotunda. We ate at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. There we viewed great space artifacts such as the Spirit of St. Louis, the X-1 which Chuck Yeager flew and the 1903 Wright Flyer. At Mount Vernon we toured the mansion of George and Martha Washington. To finish the second day, we visited memorials of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The last stop was at the Jefferson Memorial which honors our 3rd president. Day 3 was another busy day. We loaded our luggage and headed to the Arlington National Cemetery. Our first stop was at the grave site of President John F. Kennedy. We got to see where his two brothers Robert and Edward are buried. We headed to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers where we were able to see the changing of the guard. There was also a wreath-laying ceremony which finished with the playing of “Taps”. Before boarding the bus for New York City, we went to the United States Marine Corps Memorial where we were lucky enough to encounter some marines training to become officers and learning about one of the most important places for them. We boarded the bus and headed for New York….we detoured to Philadelphia where we took a quick look at the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. We ate at the Heartland and headed to the Empire State building. We were able to get some great views of the city from 86 stories up. Day 4 found us at Grand Central Station, as well as Greenwich Village viewing NYU and Washington Square Park. We drove to SOHO and Chinatown. We viewed St. Paul’s Chapel, Trinity Church and Wall Street. We took a ferry to Ellis Island and on our way viewed Liberty Island, home of the Statue of Liberty. Our next stop was at the World Trade Center Memorial where we saw water falls that had replaced the two towers that had fallen. We took pictures of the new towers be constructed. Our last highlight was attending a Broadway show, Sister Act. We all enjoyed the show. A quick visit to Times Square for a little shopping and then we headed back to the hotel. Day 5 was out last day. We experienced Rockefeller Center and NBC studios, home of Saturday Night Live. We ate New York City hot dogs and pretzels and then headed to the airport. We took some very exciting cab rides to the airport as our tour bus had mechanical difficulties. We boarded the plan at LaGuardia in New York and headed home. What an amazing trip… 
Shelby and Shayla VonBargen, Lauren Alfrey, Krystin Uhlenkott, and Sarah Seubert in Washington D.C. 
Kyle Tillinghast, Max Fernandez, Todd Ott, Devin Eckert and Brandon Anderson also in Washington D.C. |
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