Got back last night miraculously around 8:30 pm. We had a great trip, especially on the ride home. We left DC a little after 2pm after the buses loaded, and we were expecting a hellride home with Friday traffic. Our drivers heard that both 95 and the Baltimore Washington pike were parking lots all the way through Delaware, so they found Route 301 north to take us up to Wilmington, NJ and the Jersey turnpike. It was probably a slightly longer route, but there was no traffic and we made good time. Our driver, Bob, told us that 301 is closer to the coast than the two major highways, and is more rural, so few people take it. Lots of farmland and woods ... very nice!
By the time we got to NJ and made two pitstops for restroom break and dinner, the really bad traffic was mostly gone, and we didn't get stuck anywhere. I think that was probably the easiest ride home ever.
DC was great. When we got in, we went to the memorials: WW II, Lincoln, Vietnam, Korea, Jefferson. We saw the Einstein statue -- that was fun! We went to the Pentagon City mall for dinner, and it was nice to let the kids run around some. Wednesday we went to the Capitol VERY early to meet Chris Shays and get a "before it opens" tour. It was really nice to not have to wait in a long line for that. His staff took a couple big group pics, and he spoke to the kids for a few minutes before our tours started. Our group went to the Holocaust museum before meeting everyone for lunch at the Old Post Office. After lunch we went out to Mount Vernon for the tour. They have a really cool movie experience describing some of the important battles and strategies Washington used in the Revolutionary War -- seats shake during cannon blasts, soap bubble "Snow" falls during the crossing of the Delaware scene, and fog rolls out at some point. They have some kind of vineyard there, so I got Steve a bottle of their red table vino. Have no clue how good it is, but I thought he would think that was a fun souvenir for him. We got to go back to the hotel (Best Western, not too bad) to change and rest a bit before dinner (Phillips seafood restaurant, buffet with some things that were safe for me to eat). After dinner we went to the Kennedy Center to see "Shear Madness" which was hilarious! The Kennedy Center was beautiful, especially at night. The kids were not quite tired enough after everything, but such is life. Thursday we went to Arlington to see the Kennedy graves, the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and a wreath laying ceremony. We saw the Womens' Memorial building there, where they have the Faces of the Fallen exhibit. Artists (professional and amateur) take photos of the soldiers who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and create a portrait of the fallen soldier as a memorial. The portraits are displayed along one long wall, and people have left mementos next to the portraits. Some were heartbreaking -- wedding pictures, notes from the soldier's children or parents... the one that said "Merry Christmas Daddy, we love you" just shattered me. The kids behaved pretty well. We went to see the Marine War Memorial (Iwo Jima) and I got some great shots there. The optical illusion of the flag raising is amazing!
We went to the Air and Space museum for lunch, and that was a raging disaster. The museum was phenomenally crowded with school groups, and the food court area was so jammed my claustrophobia kicked in and I had to get out. I went outside and got a hot dog and a pretzel from one of the vendors and didn't bother with my lunch coupon. When the kids met us outside, we divvied up, and I took a group of about 10 to the National Archives to see if we could get in. The line was about 300 people long and it didn't budge at all, so we ditched that and went across the street to see the sculpture garden. The kids had a great time there! After that we met up with the rest of the group at the museum of Natural History for about an hour (in which we lost one kid for about 20 minutes, but she had enough sense to go to the security office and wait for us to find her). Back to the hotel again and we got changed for the dinner cruise on the Spirit of Washington. The buffet was decent, the kids were great, but the damn boat kept going in circles on the Potomac! I got mildly nauseous several times -- never bad enough to hurl, but I had to go out and get air a lot. They had a couple dance contests, and the kids were pretty funny. I managed to avoid the chaperone dance contest, which was won hands down by Senora Sam Juliano. The next morning we went to the Washington monument (again, avoided that one because I knew the claustrophobia would make me miserable). I had a ton of fun taking pics of the kids outside the monument, though. We went to the FDR memorial (kids misbehaved some and pissed off some old people, which was embarrassing), and then we went out to Hain's Point and saw The Awakening sculpture. Lunch was at Pentagon City mall again, and then we got on the buses to go home. The weather was great all week. The one really cool morning turned out to be the Arlington morning, so it was nice to walk all over and not sweat to death.
Memorable moments: the kid who earned himself the nickname "Captain Underpants" when he took a flying leap off the Jefferson Memorial steps and his shorts ended up around his ankles. He also managed to accidentally knock over a wreath in the Women's Memorial building in Arlington. Then there was the group at the WWII Memorial lying on the ground attempting to take shots of the Washington Monument appearing out of their crotches. I went over and used Jo Frame's infamous line: "You WISH!" before I told them that every grownup at the memorial knew what they were doing and it wasn't appropriate behavior for a memorial -- so get up. We played the Dating Game and Rumor Patrol on the bus, and virtually every movie the kids brought to watch on the bus was inappropriate (they actually brought Borat!). We ended up with Rush Hour and season one of Family Guy on the way home, which worked out well. Then there was the infamous bathroom incident on our bus -- one of the boys was in the (unlocked) bathroom on his cell phone, and I went back thinking there was no one in there and I could use the bathroom. Although he was fully dressed, he was convinced I thought he was in there jerking off! This of course was something the other kids found to be the height of hilarity.
We had some phenomenally immature behavior from some of the newer teachers... stuff I both didn't expect and was absolutely bowled over by (ie conniption fits over "but there's no seat saved for me!" at dinner etc). I put a muzzle on and didn't say it, but I was thinking "Put on your big girl panties and get the fuck over it." I'd definitely like to go again, though I really do hope that it will be with more of the 8th grade teachers and less of the *problematic* ones.
