Washington, DC Trip, May 24-26, 2005

The entire 5th Grade class at Greenville, Greg's school, journeyed to our nation's capital. This is Greg's journal from the trip, with each entry usually written at the end of a very long, busy day.

May 23rd (on the eve of departure for Washington):

From the Washington trip I think I will gain knowledge, maturity and one of the best trips of my life. Knowledge because I will be learning about our country’s history. I will gain maturity because I will learn how to take care of myself.

And I will have one of the best trips of my life because of the other two reasons and two nights in a hotel with some of my best friends. What could be better than all of that? [Above, Greg with buddies Ethan and Michael, all ready to board the buses and begin the journey.]

May 24th:

Today we saw the basics of the city. We saw the basics of the city because it was raining and we had to see things from the bus. We did go inside the National Archives building, which holds the Declaration of Independence, and to the Washington Monument.

At the Archives I bought two copies of the Declaration of Independence and two pencils. I didn’t get anything at the Washington Monument. Today was a good day. This is going to be a fun trip.

Greg standing at the foot of . . .	the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial

May 25th:

Today we toured the Smithsonian. Before that, we went to Ford’s Theater. It was pretty boring. We waited for an hour to get in, and the presentation was pretty much stuff we already knew. But it was interesting.

Two of the most famous flying vehicles in history: Top, the actual Spirit of St. Louis, the plane Charles Lindberg flew from New York to Paris. Below, a Lunar Module from NASA's Apollo Program. (Never used, since the copper-colored bottoms of the used ones are left on the Moon, and the tops are discarded in space.)

At the Smithsonian, we saw the Natural History Museum, which was cool, the American History Museum, which was cool, and the Air and Space Museum — that was awesome. We also saw some really powerful memorials.

But the best part of today was the taking of our class picture. I finally figured out how Mr. Solomon is at both ends of it, but that’s confidential information. I can’t tell you.

[Greg’s Social Studies teacher, Mr. Solomon, appears in the top row of the class picture — on both ends of the class! CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PHOTO.]

May 26th:

Today was our last day in Washington, DC. We saw a bunch of memorials and Arlington Cemetery. The changing of the guard was cool. That place was powerful.

This was a great trip.