OUR TRIP!

On Thursday, June 9, 2022 30 Garretson students and residents met at the airport at 3:30 AM for another great Washington DC History Trip! We arrived in Washington DC at 10:30 and met our 55 passenger bus.

We stopped on the way into DC and had lunch at the Crystal City Mall Food Court and met our guide Lorrie there.

The first stop was at the National Archives.

• We saw The Declaration of Independence which expresses the ideals on which the United States was founded and the reasons for separation from Great Britain.

• The Constitution which defines the framework of the Federal Government of the United States and

• The Bill of Rights which is the first 10 amendments to the Constitution. It defines citizens’ and states’ rights in relation to the Government.

Next up were 2 of the Smithsonians: National Museum of American History. This museum houses objects which are important in American history. The original Star-Spangled Banner, the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the song that would become our national anthem, is among the most treasured artifacts in the collections of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Other things we had the opportunity to see were the Ruby slippers--they were only on display thru June 12th, the hat Abraham Lincoln was wearing on the night of his assassination, and The First Ladies’ Dresses to mention a few.

and the Natural History Museum where the Hope Diamond, dinosaurs, and a HUGE African Bush Elephant were on display.

We had dinner at Nando's Peri Peri Chinatown--an Afro-Portuguese chain restaurant serving flame-grilled chicken in spicy chilli sauce. We finished with a yummy brownie.

Next up was the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial which honors Martin Luther King, Jr.'s legacy and the struggle for freedom, equality, and justice. Dr. King was a tireless advocate for racial equality, working class, and the oppressed around the world.

Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial--spread over 7.5 acres adjacent to the southwest side of the Tidal Basin along the Cherry Tree Walk, traces 12 years of the history of the United States through a sequence of four outdoor rooms, one for each of FDR's terms of office. Sculptures depict the 32nd president alongside his dog Fala, scenes from the Great Depression, such as listening to a fireside chat on the radio and waiting in a bread line. Among other features, the memorial includes an area with tactile reliefs with braille writing for people who are blind.

Jefferson Memorial--The Jefferson Memorial is a presidential memorial built in Washington, D.C. between 1939 and 1943 under the sponsorship of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt thought that it was a suitable memorial to the Founding Fathers of the United States and to Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the founder of the Democratic-Republican Party.

Lincoln Memorial--This Memorial towers over the Reflecting Pool, anchoring the western end of the National Mall. There are 36 columns, each one representing one state in the U.S. at the date of President Lincoln’s death. The memorial itself is 190 feet long and 119 feet wide, and reaches a height of almost 100 feet.

Our second day in DC, Friday, June 10 we started with breakfast at the hotel. Our guide met us at the hotel, and we took off for the US Capitol. Tours are a little different since CoVid and Jan 6.

You have to line up the tours through your state/Senate and House representatives--for us Thune/Johnson/Rounds offices. Our tour was done by the Capital Tours professional tour guides and we visited the Crypt, the Rotunda and National Statuary Hall. We also saw the Supreme Court Building and the Library of Congress

We had lunch at the Smithsonian American Indian Cafe.

At Arlington National Cemetery we saw Kennedy Grave sites, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier - Changing of the Guard. Our students laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery. Garretson was represented well with Carter Siemonsma, Adyson Fink, Bryn Swatek and Ty VanHolland laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Korean Memorial--one of the features of the memorial are the 19 stainless steel statues representing the service members who fought in the war. The statues are about 7 feet tall among patches of juniper bushes that symbolize the rice paddies of Korea. We saw the Texas Honor Flight there and our students were very respectful to the soldiers and we saw many hand shakes and thank you for your service from our students.

Vietnam Memorial--The memorial includes the names of over 58,000 servicemen and women who gave their lives in service in the Vietnam conflict. The memorial includes the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall, the Three Servicemen statue and the Vietnam Women's Memorial.

World War II Memorial--Twenty-four bronze bas-relief panels flank the ceremonial entrance. To many, these panels stir memories as they tell the story of America's experience in the war. Granite columns representing each U.S. state and territory at the time of World War II ring an impressive pool with water shooting high into the air. Quotes, references to theaters, campaigns, and battles, and two massive victory pavilions chronicle the efforts Americans undertook to win the war. A wall of 4,048 gold stars reminds all of the supreme sacrifice made by over 400,000 Americans to make that victory possible.

Souvenir City Shopping Stop

Supper was at We The Pizza in Arlington, VA where we had pepperoni, cheese and veggie pizza finishing the meal with vanilla gelatto! YUM!

We finished the evening with an Alexandria Ghost Tour which didn't disappoint! We had a great storyteller for our tour as we walked thru Alexandria, VA. From natives who lived here thousands of years ago, to John Smith and the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, we had an unflinching look into the city’s history, and tales of the very real hauntings experienced by its residents.

On Saturday, June 11, 2022 our 3rd day in DC we had breakfast at the hotel, put on our rain gear and headed to the White house for a picture stop and walked around Lafeyette park and saw several statues.

Next we saw the the World War I Memorial - Pershing Park which honors the 4.7 million Americans who served their nation in World War I, including 116,516 who made the supreme sacrifice. The new memorial (April 2021) incorporates the existing memorial to Gen. John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces during the war and also includes the Peace Fountain, a cascade of water behind an excerpt from the poem “The Young Dead Soldiers Do Not Speak” by Archibald MacLeish.

It was still raining, so decided to do some drive bys. We drove by Embassy Row with roughly 175 diplomatic embassies, diplomatic missions, and diplomatic residences.

Drove by the Eisenhower Memorial, nation's tribute to the architect of victory in World War II and its 34th President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Drove by Washington Hilton Hotel where on March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded by John Hinckley Jr. in Washington, D.C. as he was returning to his limousine after a speaking engagement.

Visited the National Law Enforcement Memorial which honors the role of law enforcement, in service to society, by recognizing the sacrifices and valor of law enforcement, educating the community, and making it safer for those who serve.

We visited the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery which houses collected portraits of American presidents. The Portrait Gallery has the only complete collection of presidential portraits outside the White House and now holds more than 1,600 likenesses of U.S. presidents in its collection. Highlights of the “America’s Presidents” gallery also include the iconic portrait of Andrew Jackson (1824) by Thomas Sully and the 1917 casts of Lincoln’s “life masks” (1860 and 1865.)

Lunch at Portrait Museum

We visited the Holocaust Museum, which shows the holocaust which was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million European Jews by the Nazi German regime and its allies and collaborators. The Holocaust was an evolving process that took place throughout Europe between 1933 and 1945. A very somber museum.

Ford's Theater--the site of Abraham Lincoln's assasination where a Ranger explained that on April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln. We then saw the Peterson House, a boarding house across the street from the theater where Lincoln was carried to and where he died. The Center for Education and Leadership from the back porch. The Center features two floors of permanent exhibits addressing the immediate aftermath of Lincoln's death and the evolution of Lincoln's legacy

Supper at Toby's -- a dinner theater where we had a wonderful buffet and saw a musical performance of Sponge Bob. The level of talent we saw there was unbelievable--so many talented people!

On Sunday, June 12, 2022 our 4th day in DC we had breakfast at the hotel and loaded the bus. Our guide Lorrie met us at the hotel. We loaded the bus and headed to Mt. Vernon, Home of George Washington. where we toured the Mansion as well as the Education Center and Grounds Tour. Lunch at Mt. Vernon.

IWO Jima Marine Memorial--The U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial's world-famous statue, which is based on the iconic photograph taken by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal, depicts the six Marines who raised of the second American flag at Iwo Jima in the Japanese Volcano Islands on February 23, 1945, signifying the conclusion of the American campaign in the Pacific during World War II. The memorial is dedicated to “the Marine dead of all wars and their comrades of other services who fell fighting beside them.” The memorial was dedicated on November 10, 1954 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the American flag has flown from the statue 24 hours a day, 365 days a year by presidential proclamation ever since. We had 4 veterans on our trip: Jon Schmidt, Brian Siemonsma, Bob Bennett and Andy Hulscher.

9-11 Pentagon Memorial--The Pentagon Memorial was created to remember and honor those family members and friends who are no longer with us because of the events of September 11th, 2001 at the Pentagon. Each victim has a bench, beautifully crafted, to honor their memory and their life. The benches representing the victims that were inside the Pentagon are arranged so those reading the names will face the Pentagon's south facade, where the plane hit; benches dedicated to victims aboard the plane are arranged so that those reading the engraved name will be facing skyward along the path the plane. It was amazing.

2:30 We left for the airport, where our group was in 2 groups--one going home thru Atlanta, the other thru Chicago, but ironically both groups arrived home about 10:00 PM Sunday evening after a very fun and educational 4 days mere minutes apart!