As we prepared to set out on our last morning in Washington D.C., I had to stop and check to see what the day of the week was. I'd only been gone from home three days, and I'd already lost track of time -- crazy. That was mostly due to how completely jam-packed our days had been on a group tour where you manage to put more into a single day than you normally manage to accomplish in a week or more back home.
By this time, everyone's feet and legs were very sore from all the walking we'd been doing, but I was really excited because this was the day that we'd be heading to New York City! Woohoo! Unfortunately, we got a later start out from the hotel than we were supposed to because one member of our large group decided to sleep in despite numerous others attempting to wake him up. We were not happy with that particular individual, and since he was a student, I let him know it throughout the day. You just don't do that when 42 other people are waiting for you.
When we finally rolled out of the parking lot, we headed back to Washington D.C. for two final stops. The first was at the Marine Corps monument of the replica of the famous Iwo Jima flag-raising photo. We were fortunate enough to arrive at the same time that two Marines were climbing onto the monument carrying a large bag.
We watched them lower the large flag and replace it with a smaller one. They then raised that flag, saluted it, lowered it, and then they repeated the process with another flag. I think they had many more to do because the bag they'd carried up was large, but we didn't stay to watch the entire proceedings. I am sure that the families for whom those flags were intended will appreciate what those two men were doing that morning.
As a Legion Rider, I've seen those flags draping caskets and then given to grieving families in cemeteries. They become cherished tokens of loved ones that can be passed on down the road.
From this monument, we walked over to Arlington Cemetery. This was my second visit, but the place still filled me with awe. It was the first visit for my boyfriend, who is also a Legion Rider, and I could see that it impacted him greatly.
We stayed to watch the Changing of the Guard twice from two different vantage points. Since both times I've been there have been on school tours during high-tourist time, I would really like to return during a time when the viewing area isn't packed with people. While most of them were appropriately quiet and well-behaved, there were still those who just don't get that they need to show their proper respect to the whole area.
While standing by my son in Arlington as we watched, I heard "Taps" played twice, and every time I hear that, I remember him playing it in high school at military funerals and during the Memorial Day ceremony. I was always so proud of him for doing that, and when I attend funerals as a Legion Rider, I'm always a little bit disappointed in the dressed soldiers who show up only to hold a bugle with a recording to their lips. Nothing beats the real thing, even if the person squeaks on a few notes -- it's the sentiment behind those real notes that matter, to me. Anyway, those are just some thoughts I had while standing and watching the Changing of the Guard next to my grown son who used to play the trumpet in high school.
After stopping to see the Eternal Flame, the memorial to the Challenger victims, and the view from Robert E. Lee's house, we left both Arlington Cemetery and Washington D.C. and headed for New York City.
As we drove along I-95 and the New Jersey Turnpike, I was actually quite surprised at how lush the vegetation was.
I guess I was expecting it to be stripped and full of buildings or something. I'm not really sure; I just know that I was surprised by it -- as I'm sure visitors to Nebraska are surprised to encounter rolling hills in certain parts of the state that they were otherwise told is completely flat and full of cows and/or corn.
Of course, once we got closer to New York City, that vegetation quickly turned to a gridlock of cars that better met my preconceived notions of what driving into New York City would be like! Ha, ha.
From this point on, it became a game of creep forward a little, wait a while. This gave me a lot of time to peek down into other driver's cars from my elevated vantage point in a charter bus. Let's just say that about 99 per cent of the drivers were scrolling through their phones while they, too, played the game of creep forward a little, wait a while. I shook my head, but I can understand the need to fill the long minutes with activity to keep yourself from screaming at the other drivers.
I wouldn't want to drive in that every day. This bottle-neck was completely due to the number of people wanting to go through the Lincoln Tunnel into Manhattan, but what was strange was that once we actually got through the tunnel, the traffic virtually disappeared!
After waiting an hour to get through the tunnel, it only took us minutes to arrive at the Empire State Building. However, once inside there we were in for another long, long wait in lines before we could get to the observation deck.
And to our disbelief, the first elevator only takes you to the 80th floor. From there, you have to either get in more long lines to wait for another elevator to take you to the 86th floor where the observation deck actually is, or you can do what we did -- take the stairs! The first four flights I managed all right, but for the last two, I was definitely sucking air!
But when we finally stepped out onto the observation deck, it was all worth it!
If only I could have stayed up there for hours! However, when you are with a group, you have to stick to a schedule, so we exited and then split up anyway for supper.
My family ate at Heartland Brewery, a restaurant/pub that is located on the corner of the block that houses the Empire State Building. We were led downstairs into a very nice room with real NYC ambiance where we ate our very first NYC meal. I had a delicious pulled pork sandwich with onion chips right in the sandwich. Yummy.
After we got back on the bus and went back through the Lincoln Tunnel, our great bus driver named Steve took us into Weehawken to JFK Boulevard and pulled over, so we could all exit and take in the amazing views of the nighttime Manhattan skyline.
We were truly blown away by the view, and I immediately envied the people who lived in the houses on that street and who had that incredible view everyday. But then I thought about the cost of living there, and my envy dissipated.
We drove to our hotel in Clark, New Jersey for our final night with the group because, even though we'd be spending the next day with them, we'd be leaving them that night to forge on for ourselves for five days in NYC.
More to come.
This was my second visit to the nation's capital -- both trips were school ones, and both were taken with my son. The first was five years ago right after he graduated high school. This more recent time I went again to commemorate my daughter's high school graduation, and since we were also slated to visit NYC, I decided to make a real vacation of the experience by tacking on extra days in NYC for us and by including my son and my boyfriend on the trip. It was to be one last family vacation before my two kids started down their separate paths as a teacher/coach (my son) and as a college freshman (my daughter).
For that reason it made the trip both extra-special and extra-sad. I doubt we'll ever have another opportunity like this, so I'm so glad we took advantage of the school's trip to make a memorable one of our own.
One of the problems, though, with traveling with 42 other people is that you have to cater to a set schedule to accommodate all those people. This meant meeting at the school at 12:30 a.m. to depart for the airport in Omaha by 1:00 a.m. which meant absolutely no sleep for us on June 5th. Ugh.
After arriving at Eppley and checking in all 43 passengers' bags, we then awaited our 6:20 a.m. flight to St. Louis where we had a short layover before proceeding on to Washington D.C. We were there by noon. Crazy how you can get halfway across the entire country in a matter of hours!
For my son and me, most of the D.C. experience was a repeat of what we had done five years ago, but it's always good to revisit places to get a fresh perspective. We began our visit to D.C. at the Holocaust Museum, a very somber start to our time there.
Just like five years ago, though, we didn't have enough time in the museum to really absorb and read much of the wealth of information, images and items on display; however, I got just as choked up this time as I did before. Honestly, if I can ever get there a third time, it will be during the winter when there aren't so many tourists and other student groups like our own because that is a place that deserves both my time and my focus.
My boyfriend was shocked by the film footage showing the Nazis bulldozing emaciated, dead bodies into pits for mass burial. I was shocked that he'd never seen that footage before because it made a huge impression on me in a junior high history class I took -- it's an image that you can never forget. Sadly, more people should visit places like this museum and learn from our past because I continue to see atrocities being carried out all over the world. One should gain insight and wisdom and empathy from places like the Holocaust Museum, and one should realize that we should treat each other with humanity.
Our next stop was a Smithsonian Museum. There are many to choose from, so we chose the Natural History one because my daughter plans to be a paleontologist. It's a massive building with many displays, and once again we didn't have near enough time to really soak it all in, so we hurried to the dinosaur fossil hall. I could really see her working in a place like that someday, and she was captivated by the people working in the small lab which was visible to visitors. In the gift shop she gravitated right to a book about Quantum stuff -- I'll leave that to her understanding and enjoyment.
With a group tour always comes lots and lots of walking, and we hit the ground running from that point on. We walked to the White House for a photo op, we walked to our bus which involved retracing our steps a few times until we caught up with it, then we walked all around the Korean, Vietnam and Lincoln Memorials.
I'd told my students about how the spot where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech is marked, so many of them went to find that as did my family and I. Unfortunately, by this time it was quite dark, which makes for the monuments looking quite pretty all lit up but doesn't make for seeing the marker of his speech the best especially when some other tourist has disrespectfully poured a beverage of some sort all over it. We did our best, though. My boyfriend and I also managed to locate the name of a Vietnam soldier we know by association with his sister, and we were honored to snap a quick photo of it to prove we'd found him.
Finally, June 6th came to an end for us as we rode our bus into Virginia to the hotel where we were staying a couple nights.
June 7th began with a visit to the Capitol.
Again, it was rush, rush, rush to get there on time for our scheduled group visit. The tour only allows visitors to see a small part of the building, but it's still worth your time to go.
For me, though, seeing part of the Library of Congress for a second time was the highlight of the visit.
That beautiful main visitor room almost brings me to tears, and looking down into the reading room makes me want to skip out on the rest of the tour, get a library card and roam the stacks for the rest of eternity. Sigh. Naturally, my kids were looking down into the reading room imagining Nicholas Cage as Benjamin Gates roaming the stacks looking for the President's secret book! Ha. (O.K., I was too, a little.)
While at the Library of Congress, I finally got to see something I hadn't seen five years ago -- Jefferson's library. He and I are of the same mind-set as one of his well-known quotes is "I cannot live without books." Nor can I, Mr. President, nor can I.
After this, we went to have lunch from a variety of food trucks. Take it from me, when you are in D.C. do NOT eat from those food trucks. Horrible, horrible food. I wasn't really hungry, so I just had an ice cream bar, but I watched most of the other 42 travelers throw away their food because it was mostly inedible. Just a word of caution from one traveler to another.
That afternoon we ventured on to Mount Vernon. Five years ago, this place had left a great impression on me, so I was excited to revisit it. It didn't disappoint. The only thing that did was that once again there were so many large tours there that day that we couldn't really get close to the Washingtons' burial site without waiting in a long line, so we chose not to see that particular piece of history.
We walked down to the river and all around the grounds of our first President's special home. The flower garden caught my attention five years ago, and it wowed me again.
And we all sat on the expansive porch and took in the grand view from there.
If you've never gone to Mount Vernon, it should be on your list of places to see in the U.S.A. before you die.
From there we rode to Alexandria, Virginia -- mere days before the unfortunate shooting took place. We were given some time to walk around the main streets of this old city, and the four of us visited a delicious chocolate shop called Kilwins. Yummy fudge but we each bought one special treat for later.
After supper at The Fish Market, we broke up our large group into two smaller gender-based ones and went on walking ghost tours of the city. The ladies' group had a lively male presenter who really got into his stories, and our tour ended in a small cemetery.
We passed back through D.C. and stopped at the Jefferson Memorial. We then walked over to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial which is better viewed in the daytime to be able to clearly read all the engravings.
Back at our hotel, we met up with a young lady who was an exchange student in my town and who briefly stayed with us during that time. She and I have kept in touch over the years, and she has been visiting a friend in Alexandria for a couple of months before she heads back to Mongolia. While Asia has never been high on my places to travel list, I would like to go to Ulaanbaatar to see her in her native land someday.
Next up will be a post about our last half-day in D.C. and our first NYC experience! Read, ride and roam every chance you get!
