ameliaj
Beach Fanatic
Back from Washington. We had a fabulous trip. Twelve 8th graders, 9 chaperones and one marvelous tour guide. Here's a quick rundown of where we went.
Smithsonian: You can spend weeks here. The kids were underwhelmed with the Air & Space Museum since they had all been to Space Camp in Huntsville. But they loved the American History Museum with the The Flag that flew over Ft. McHenry. First Lady Gowns, Ruby Slippers and Lincoln's Top hat
The girls loved the jewelry in the Natural History Museum. Lunch in the Art Museum garden was lovely
Eucharist at National Cathedral: They have the service at noon on Wednesday with a brief organ concert afterwards.
Holocaust Museum: Unbelievable, but as you can imagine, very intense. This will take several hours but certainly worth it. It would be tough for kids younger than 8th grade unless they are very mature.
Spy Museum: I thought this was going to be hokey, but it was really pretty cool. Who knew all that stuff you see on TV was real.
Newseum: History from the news reporters point of view. The 9/ll exhibit is quite good.
Arlington National Cemetary: Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown every hour. Very beautiful and quite moving.
Lincoln Memorial: It's gorgeous at night. The Lincoln Statue almost glows with the lighting
but there must have been a zillion school kids there. Very crowded last week.
Jefferson Memorial: Crowded as well, but worth the trip. Didn't know FDR had it build so he could see it from the White House. You can see that they keep the trees trimmed so the president can still have a view of Mr. Jefferson.
WWII Memorial: Very elegant, but not very exciting for the kids
Korean War Memorial: Very cool at night. There are 19 bronze soldier statues. They look almost like ghosts in the dark.
Viet Nam Memorial: Make sure to get to it before dark, it is not very well lit. But very moving. A lot of visitors had names they were looking for and left cards and flowers.
Marine Memorial - Iwo Jima: Same thing, it is not well lit either.
FDR Memorial: It's a beautiful walk way with fountains and statues right on the Tidal Basin. It is almost like a zen garden.
Ford Theater & Peterson House: There's a nice museum to Lincoln in the basement of Ford Theater and the Park Ranger who gave the lecture in the actual theater was very good. It is a working theater and they have matinee's at 12:30, (Little Shop of Horrors is playing now) so you have to take the tour early.
Capital: See if you can get a tour from your congressman or senator. They have aides who do this all the time. The public tours are way too crowded. You can only go in the rotunda, the old hall and downstairs for Washington's Crypt (He's not buried there). The Senate was in session when we were there and it was close to closing time, so we were able to get tickets to the gallery. Saw Diane Feinstein expounding for a good while. Once again, the place was wall to wall people.
National Archives: There is lots to see there, but the main things of course, are the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and Bill of Rights. The line outside is long. If you make a reservation, you can jump in front of the folks waiting in line.
Mt. Vernon: Very beautiful. They have it all set up as it was in George's day with most all the original furniture. The gardens are beautiful and there are actors dressed up as characters from George's time who walk along the line and talk to you. George is buried here. There is a museum with an interactive movie that has real snow falling. Pretty cool.
We stayed at the Doubletree hotel in Alexandria, but then we had our own bus to get to the city. The shops, etc and cute restaurants there were all in walking distance and looked really nifty. I'd have loved to explore there some. But they had us on a tight schedule. we left at 7:30 in the morning and didn't return to the hotel until nearly 10:00 every night.
Hope you have a great trip.
Smithsonian: You can spend weeks here. The kids were underwhelmed with the Air & Space Museum since they had all been to Space Camp in Huntsville. But they loved the American History Museum with the The Flag that flew over Ft. McHenry. First Lady Gowns, Ruby Slippers and Lincoln's Top hat
The girls loved the jewelry in the Natural History Museum. Lunch in the Art Museum garden was lovely
Eucharist at National Cathedral: They have the service at noon on Wednesday with a brief organ concert afterwards.
Holocaust Museum: Unbelievable, but as you can imagine, very intense. This will take several hours but certainly worth it. It would be tough for kids younger than 8th grade unless they are very mature.
Spy Museum: I thought this was going to be hokey, but it was really pretty cool. Who knew all that stuff you see on TV was real.
Newseum: History from the news reporters point of view. The 9/ll exhibit is quite good.
Arlington National Cemetary: Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown every hour. Very beautiful and quite moving.
Lincoln Memorial: It's gorgeous at night. The Lincoln Statue almost glows with the lighting
but there must have been a zillion school kids there. Very crowded last week.
Jefferson Memorial: Crowded as well, but worth the trip. Didn't know FDR had it build so he could see it from the White House. You can see that they keep the trees trimmed so the president can still have a view of Mr. Jefferson.
WWII Memorial: Very elegant, but not very exciting for the kids
Korean War Memorial: Very cool at night. There are 19 bronze soldier statues. They look almost like ghosts in the dark.
Viet Nam Memorial: Make sure to get to it before dark, it is not very well lit. But very moving. A lot of visitors had names they were looking for and left cards and flowers.
Marine Memorial - Iwo Jima: Same thing, it is not well lit either.
FDR Memorial: It's a beautiful walk way with fountains and statues right on the Tidal Basin. It is almost like a zen garden.
Ford Theater & Peterson House: There's a nice museum to Lincoln in the basement of Ford Theater and the Park Ranger who gave the lecture in the actual theater was very good. It is a working theater and they have matinee's at 12:30, (Little Shop of Horrors is playing now) so you have to take the tour early.
Capital: See if you can get a tour from your congressman or senator. They have aides who do this all the time. The public tours are way too crowded. You can only go in the rotunda, the old hall and downstairs for Washington's Crypt (He's not buried there). The Senate was in session when we were there and it was close to closing time, so we were able to get tickets to the gallery. Saw Diane Feinstein expounding for a good while. Once again, the place was wall to wall people.
National Archives: There is lots to see there, but the main things of course, are the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and Bill of Rights. The line outside is long. If you make a reservation, you can jump in front of the folks waiting in line.
Mt. Vernon: Very beautiful. They have it all set up as it was in George's day with most all the original furniture. The gardens are beautiful and there are actors dressed up as characters from George's time who walk along the line and talk to you. George is buried here. There is a museum with an interactive movie that has real snow falling. Pretty cool.
We stayed at the Doubletree hotel in Alexandria, but then we had our own bus to get to the city. The shops, etc and cute restaurants there were all in walking distance and looked really nifty. I'd have loved to explore there some. But they had us on a tight schedule. we left at 7:30 in the morning and didn't return to the hotel until nearly 10:00 every night.
Hope you have a great trip.
