DC

Here's a brief recap of my trip to DC this year.


Day 1- Gettysburg- we did tons of walking. I didn't really see anything new. We ate at the same buffet we always eat at. The food was gross, as usual. We did however get a compliment from the staff there. They said that we were the best chaperones they had seen. We kept all of our kids under control and didn't leave a huge mess. That's always nice to hear. We did the trip a little differently this year because we left on Tuesday morning instead of Tuesday night. It was a lot nicer sleeping in a hotel bed that night rather than the bus. It also helped our energy level over the next several days.


Day 2- Tour of 8 million museums. Okay, not really 8 million. We hit up the National Archives and then THREE Smithsonians. We went to the Art Museum this year, which we've never been to before. It was amazing. If you've never been to this museum, you should go. I stood within inches of Monet and Da Vinci and Renoir. It was incredible. I can't wait to take Kendall back to see them. We also went to the Air and Space Museum which I never walk through. And finally the Natural History Museum where I got my standard dinosaur picture. This year it was with T-Rex. I also got to see a pair of diamond earrings that Marie Antoinette once wore. They were HUGE! How did those not make her ears hurt? We finished the day with the National Holocaust Museum. Always the most sobering part of the trip for the kids. We had one girl walk out bawling. I found two very interesting books to read. We ended the night with a pizza party and dance. The pizza was GROSS. It was reheated Papa Johns that the hotel tried to pass off as fresh. You know how Papa Johns has that different taste when it's been reheated? Yeah. GROSS. The kids made us get out on the dance floor and boogey with them. It was fun.



Day 3- A cemetery, a church, and a row of politicians. We spent the entire morning at Arlington National Cemetery. It's always a long walk up hill and then an enjoyable 10 minutes of oogling men in uniform. I swear, the guys that guard the Tomb of Unknown soldiers are always the hottest guys I've ever seen in uniform. We ate lunch in the Regan Building where they have this amazing cookie shop. Then we headed to the National Cathedral for the crappiest tour I've ever had there. All the other teachers agreed. We didn't even get to go into the basement and see Helen Keller's tomb. No, seriously, she's buried there. I'm not pulling a Pee Wee on you. We fininished the day with a drive through Embassy Row and dinner at the ESPN Zone. Decent food compared to some of the other buffets we eat at on the trip. The kids got to wind down by playing a couple of hours of video games.


Day 4- A dead President. We went to Mt Vernon, which I've never been to before. If you've never been there it's the house of George Washington. It's been preserved to look just like it did the year he died. It's freaking AWESOME. I don't know why, but I loved it. I just couldn't believe that I was walking on the same floor that the original GW did. I even got to see the bed that he died in. And his tomb. And his last set of fake teeth! They were disgusting! But I got to see them. I highly recommend a stop to Mt Vernon. It had more to do than we had time for. The only thing I didn't like was that they were super anal about kids staying with chaperones. No where else was this anal. Including the Art Museum where kids could have reached out and touched the paintings. The drive home to Dayton was rough. I got pretty bus sick. And I was burping up banana pudding the whole way home from our lunch buffet.


I'm really glad to be home now. I'm also glad to be back into the swing of school routine. The kids weren't, but I am. :)