After Boulder we had a 3.00am wake up call because we had to be at the airport to meet the Gunnison students and Cindy Mckee, the Gunnison Middle School Teacher who had organised the trip to Washington. WoW!!! what a trip. Non stop, visits to museums, monuments, Mount Vernon, Williamsburg and James Town. All absolutely fabulous. The students were amazing and great to have parents as part of the trip.
One of the students captured my heart. He spent the whole trip working out how to do tricks with his hat (just like Caleb) and of course he was never looking at the same things or in the same way as the rest of the group!!
Loved Williamsburg - a great way to put American history into perspective.
My favourite place though (sad but true) was the National Archives. No it wasn't seeing the Magna Carter or the Declaration of Independence (Great as they were) but the public archives which had a fantastic facility which allowed access to databases via computer. So interactive it was great... so ...........m..if you were interested in Watergate or the sufferage movement or whatever, you simply glide your computer along under the data files and access what you want - original sources such as journal entries, photographs, movie reels, tv, radio interviews. So my kind of thing. Would just love to take students there.
As always I am cut up by all the monuments to war. Arlington broke my heart. 35 funerals a day ............of course not all from the current wars but still seeing hundreds of rows of white crosses really brings home the hundreds of thousands of people affected by all the conflict.
Love to see some peace monuments and some different messages going out to kids. In fact there is a new peace monument which is having all sorts of bureacratic problems. As I would say in my new all American accent "Go figure"
Still had an amazing time. Could have spent 3 weeks just in the Smithsonian. Americans really do know how to do philanthropy and to create these amazing institutions.
Arrived back in Denver after delays cos of weather at 2.30am to find our shuttle bus wasn't working. Got the grumpiest cabbie of all time. Next morning realised I had left my lovely journal behind. Ah well Vancouver and Alaska tomorrow
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