5-18-2022 - Exploring D.C. by...Foote

Foote feet are made for walking, and walk we did—for most of the day. We started the day with journal writing and reflections in the hotel courtyard before infiltrating the Spy Museum for a short visit. One student said as we were leaving, “Well, you did a good job making us want to come back!” The National Museum of African American History and Culture was a profound visit for the group, and we traveled through together, in our family groups. During our three-hour stint at that Museum, we ate at the yummy restaurant and again turned to our journals to record our reflections. Arlington National Cemetery was the next stop for us and we found our tour there well-paced and informative in the midday sun. We were lucky to have the breeze and the shade in that national arboretum and cemetery.  Highlights were the gravestones for Ruth Bater Ginsberg, Thurgood Marshall, John, Robert, and Edward Kennedy.  We wrapped up our time at the cemetery with a very solemn changing of the guards at Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We snapped a picture in front of the White House after sketching in our journals at Lafayette Square, and walked the length of the Black Lives Matter Plaza. We enjoyed pizza and playing around with friends outside on the grass at the Mall to wrap up the evening. The day closed with a decent walk to the wharf for ice cream. Ben and Jerry’s itself was certainly a highlight for the students. The highlight of the evening—for the adults on the trip—was when, at Ben and Jerry’s, a retired teacher approached Barry Fulton to express her admiration of our students’ engagement and behavior when she had seen our group this morning at the African American History museum. All is well, and we are having a great time with your children who are growing in new and thoughtful ways on this trip.