By: Kayla Rogan
As I apprehensively waited on the unairconditioned coach bus that broke down on the New Jersey Turnpike, I thought to myself, “will my grade ever make it to Washington DC?” The answer to that question was happily yes, and I had a great experience on the school’s trip to DC!
I woke up early on the morning of October 28th to go meet my classmates promptly at 6 am. I was so excited to finally go on the trip. My friends and I went onto the coach bus that was going to take us to DC after we said our goodbyes to our parents. As you may have heard bus #3 broke down on a busy highway. It was hot on the bus with so many of us. Once the tow truck came it pulled bus #3 to the closest rest stop. At the rest stop, we waited another two hours for another bus to complete the journey.
The new bus arrived and everyone was fascinated by the new coach bus. It was newer, larger and seemed cleaner. From that point into the trip, we only had to travel another two and half hours to finally be in Washington DC. The hours flew by quickly, and once we arrived in Washington DC everyone was hoping to go settle into the hotel rooms but we learned that we were going to start our tour. We visited many museums, monuments, and memorials throughout the trip including the Smithsonian Museum, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Korean Memorial, the Arlington National Cemetery where we saw the JFK Gravesite and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. At the National Archives, I viewed the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. We also saw the Constitution, Ford’s Theater, the Petersen House, the Jefferson Memorial, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial, the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial and the WWII Memorial. The last place we toured in DC was the Capital Hill area. This was my favorite part of the trip. The tour included the U.S. Capitol Building, U.S. Supreme Court and the Library of Congress. The Capitol Building was beautifully structured and I feel visiting this site made my trip to DC even more special. Throughout the trip, I had a lot of fun touring our nation’s capital with my grade. I loved going to DC and would definitely go again!
