Saturday, May 14, 2005
The 6th grade trip to Washington DC was fantastic. I left the night before on a red eye. Ellie met me in DC, and we had a wonderful Mother's day, shopping, and having tea and lunch.
Meanwhile, Young had gotten Jacob to the airport, and he winged across the country. Ellie and I met and absconded with him at the airport and drove him to the hotel in Wiilliamsburg so the two of them could have some time together.
The next day the tour started in earnest at Colonial Williamsburg, which was about 1/3 history and 2/3 shopping and the kids had a blast. That night the tour bus took us to Zion Baptist Church outside Williamsburg for an "African American Experience" of story telling, dancing and drumming. Jacob and three other kids got to drum.
After that it was non-stop. The next day was Mount Vernon in the morning and DC proper in the afternoon, starting with, for Jacob and me, anyway, the Air and Space museum, and ending after sunset at the Jefferson Memorial. One of the things that impressed me most about DC was the way each monument and building was set off to advantage from each other. Jacob had written his report on the Washington monument, and later we got to go up inside it.
Jacob was completely involved with his friends, and most of the time I just tried to stay out of his way. Luckily, the teachers were more than generous about including me. We had a great Ethiopian dinner together.
We visited the capitol wednesday, sitting in on both the house of representatives (where we heard a number of short speeches running the gamut from stem cell research to defaulting airline pensions) and the senate (where they were debating and voting on a transportation bill).
Security was in ready evidence. There were impassive men with very large guns stationed everywhere. We'd hardly left the capitol when sirens began to blare. A small plane had crossed into protected airspace and didn't respond properly, so they evacuated all of Captol hill. I was really proud of the Nueva kids for how well they handled it, considering at the time we had no idea what was going on. I'm also glad we weren't still inside the capitol when the order was given. Evidently there was all kinds of pandemonium.
It was over soon, anyway, and we were able to keep our appointment with Barbara Boxer on back steps of the Captiol. She was extremely gracious about answering questions,
And then we waited what seemed like hours for some South American Diplomats to leave the building, before we were allowed to depart. It reminded me of that Cake song, "Long Line of Cars."
Wednesday night we went to see the sign language musical, Big River, which was pretty great. The kids were all singing the songs the next day.
Another flurry of monuments thursday morning, and it was time for Jacob and me to leave. Our plane was to leave at 4pm, so we got to the airport at 2:30 like good travelers. It was, however, cancelled and we finally got out on a 9:30 flight. Jacob was somewhat bitter that he could have spent all that extra time with his friends, but six manga books kept him at least partially entertained.
I can't tell you how glad we were to see Young in the San Francisco Baggage claim.
Meanwhile, Young had gotten Jacob to the airport, and he winged across the country. Ellie and I met and absconded with him at the airport and drove him to the hotel in Wiilliamsburg so the two of them could have some time together.
The next day the tour started in earnest at Colonial Williamsburg, which was about 1/3 history and 2/3 shopping and the kids had a blast. That night the tour bus took us to Zion Baptist Church outside Williamsburg for an "African American Experience" of story telling, dancing and drumming. Jacob and three other kids got to drum.
After that it was non-stop. The next day was Mount Vernon in the morning and DC proper in the afternoon, starting with, for Jacob and me, anyway, the Air and Space museum, and ending after sunset at the Jefferson Memorial. One of the things that impressed me most about DC was the way each monument and building was set off to advantage from each other. Jacob had written his report on the Washington monument, and later we got to go up inside it.
Jacob was completely involved with his friends, and most of the time I just tried to stay out of his way. Luckily, the teachers were more than generous about including me. We had a great Ethiopian dinner together.
We visited the capitol wednesday, sitting in on both the house of representatives (where we heard a number of short speeches running the gamut from stem cell research to defaulting airline pensions) and the senate (where they were debating and voting on a transportation bill).
Security was in ready evidence. There were impassive men with very large guns stationed everywhere. We'd hardly left the capitol when sirens began to blare. A small plane had crossed into protected airspace and didn't respond properly, so they evacuated all of Captol hill. I was really proud of the Nueva kids for how well they handled it, considering at the time we had no idea what was going on. I'm also glad we weren't still inside the capitol when the order was given. Evidently there was all kinds of pandemonium.
It was over soon, anyway, and we were able to keep our appointment with Barbara Boxer on back steps of the Captiol. She was extremely gracious about answering questions,
And then we waited what seemed like hours for some South American Diplomats to leave the building, before we were allowed to depart. It reminded me of that Cake song, "Long Line of Cars."
Wednesday night we went to see the sign language musical, Big River, which was pretty great. The kids were all singing the songs the next day.
Another flurry of monuments thursday morning, and it was time for Jacob and me to leave. Our plane was to leave at 4pm, so we got to the airport at 2:30 like good travelers. It was, however, cancelled and we finally got out on a 9:30 flight. Jacob was somewhat bitter that he could have spent all that extra time with his friends, but six manga books kept him at least partially entertained.
I can't tell you how glad we were to see Young in the San Francisco Baggage claim.
# posted by Ann @ 3:57 PM 
