DC 2014

One week ago, I traveled with six buses full of eighth grade boys and girls and teachers to our country's capital: DC. And my goodness was it beautiful! The bus ride there was long and within the confined walls of a bus but was as comfortable as it gets and had a gorgeous view.

My school visited all the memorials under the sun, and under the rain in that case.

On Monday, we boarded the bus and left the school roughly 6:30 A.M. I was waiting for my entire group to arrive at the school before boarding so we got the second to last seat in the back... right next to the bathroom. Well shoot. Our bus driver warned us that anyone who enters the bathroom, must stay in the bathroom until we reach our destination. So, I don't know, 7-8 hours. Fine with me as long as we can't smell the stench the entire time.

On our way to DC, we made sort of a B-line to Mount Vernon and saw the farm and house where George Washington lived and died. Pretty "touristy" but you gotta do what you gotta do. When we arrived at the hotel, all the elevators were packed from previous buses. Long story short, we ended up walking 15 flights of stairs with our luggage to get to our room. Yaaay. Climbing is (not) fun! We finally... miraculously... got to our room, unpacked, took showers, and got situated. Little did I know, I was the first one asleep and just with my luck, got my own bed. So far this trip was fantastic.

Some perks from Tuesday include the evacuation from the outside of the White House fences, the depressing, informative, yet lively Holocaust Museum and the FANTASTIC International Spy Museum. I was told this year was the first to go there and my goodness was that a good decision! I ADORED the Spy Museum! It was incredibly interactive, full of twists and turns (and a vent to crawl through), and a horizontal bar. Not just any bar- HA! Oh no. This was a bar that (could adjust to your height which was a perk) moved, "jumped", and acted as a type of construction thing that James Bond would hang on to. This would be, of course, outside so there needed to be wind, right? Well the International Spy Museum delivered and gave us wind! Everyone in my group tried this thing out. The first girl got 20 (supposedly average), and the next (and strongest may I add) got 40 seconds. A whopping 40 seconds. I was determined to beat that time.. and I did. I GOT A MINUTE. 60 seconds if you forgot. The man working it said 60 seconds was as good as James Bond so, naturally, I became James Bond, or just stole his name... same difference.... The last girl finished us off with a bang. She reached 23 seconds, jumped off and exclaimed "I BEAT AVERAGE!" and, by golly, that was good enough. After the museums, we visited a few monuments, got lunch, continued the monuments tour, got dinner and headed back to the hotel.

Wednesday was especially fun because it was raining the majority of it and we had a bit of a tornado scare. Just a warning, nothing big but the lightning sure was brilliant. I loved Wednesday a lot because we got to go to the Smithsonian and it was amazing. I am truly at a loss of words because it was so cool. But, let me tell you, I highly regret not going into the live butterfly exhibit. And doing other things too! What we did do, though, was walk through the Sculpture Garden in the rain. I just really like the rain, man. That's pretty much all we did Wednesday, but that doesn't make it uneventful. It was just the opposite.

Thursday was "goodbye DC" day. On our way home, we stopped at some village/city/odd little establishment and ate lunch. HOLY COW IT WAS SO GOOD. After I stuffed my face, my friends and I went on a self guided "haunted" tour, that smelled like cat pee may I add, and was not scary at all except for the wax figures that were just plain freaky. WE got on the bus and got home.

I miss DC, of course, but it's good to be home.

Until next time,

Emma