8th Grade Trip: D.C. or Bust!
As you may know, the 8th graders have just returned from their trip to Washington, D.C. We were accompanied by four parents and a certain Ms. Ramberg. We started the trip off by boarding a train that was going to New York, instead of DC. After sorting out the trains, riding the Metro, and walking a fair distance (luggage in hand), we arrived at the hotel. We ended the day with an evening stroll around Capitol Hill.
We really enjoyed our trip—it was enlightening from learning to navigate the Metro to finding out about women's experiences working on the Hill.
After seeing many classic works at the National Gallery of Art, we were joined by Ms. Ramberg's cousin Eleanor, who took us to the Senate Cafeteria for lunch. We toured the Capitol, and then half of us went to meet Texas House Representative Lloyd Doggett, and the other half toured the Washington Monument. We all regrouped to see the monuments by evening and exclaim over the ducks at the Reflecting Pool.
On day three we toured both the National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of the American Indian, ending up at NMAI for a lunch featuring traditional cuisine from indigenous cultures. In the afternoon we were all ecstatic to find the carousel in front of the Smithsonian, which many of the girls and Ms. Ramberg were thrilled to ride. After that we spent three hours in the Natural History Museum, seeing everything from dinosaur bones to the Hope diamond. We ended the day with the National Archives.
Day four started with the National Holocaust Memorial Museum, a beautiful record of one of history's darkest periods. We then returned to the Senatorial Cafeteria to eat with women working in the legislative branch. After lunch, we split up to go to the National Portrait Gallery and the East building of the National Gallery of Art, while a feverish Gabi and her mom went back to the hotel for some rest. Later that evening, most of us visited the Folger Shakespeare Library to see Tom Stoppard's Arcadia.
Finally, much of our group saw the works in the National Museum of Women in the Arts. We departed from our hotel at 12:00 to walk to the Metro, take the Metro to the train, the train to the shuttle bus, the shuttle bus to the airport and finally the plane home. It was a long day of travel to end an exciting journey.
We really enjoyed our trip—it was enlightening from learning to navigate the Metro to finding out about women's experiences working on the Hill. We hope everyone gets to see the Capitol City of the United States at some point, and wish to return ourselves one day.