CWF - Day 6

Today was our last day of touring, as well as our final day at the National 4-H Conference Center.

We first went to see the Washington Monument,
then to the White House,

then some students wanted to buy some cheap goods from the street vendors,

then our groups split up, and I headed to the museums. They were a good time. Lots to see in only a couple of hours. But here are some fun ones.

then went and waited outside the Holocaust Museum for tickets for part of our group (the other part went to the Smithsonian Museums), [It was quite active outside the museum today. Lots of tv reports, cameras, and a whole lot of people wanting to get in. ] While waiting, I saw a memorial of the guard that lost his life on Wednesday.

Then our whole group.....38 people.....took the Metro from the Smithsonian Museums to the Pentagon. That was an adventure, but went quite well. (Since we are leaving the DC around midnight tonight, we were letting our bus driver sleep.)

After the Pentagon, we took the Metro back to the buses, and had to split up our group among 3 buses to get back to the center.

That about wraps up my trip in DC. Thanks for following along! If you ever want to take a trip there someday and need some suggestions of things to see, let me know. I'd be happy to help out. I had a fabulous time out here. Maybe I'll do this again some day. These youth from central Iowa were a great bunch of kids, and we all had a good time. I am hoping to make a few of the county fairs this year, because of this great group of kids.

CWF - Day 5

Yesterday was a full day of activity. I didn't have time to post about the day, so I'm doing it now. In the morning, we headed out to see some more sites. We visited Arlington National Cemetery. We had the joy of taking a tourmobile around the grounds, and that was fabulous! I have been there one time before, but walked the whole time. I saw a whole lot more than I did before, thanks to not having to walk. We made it in time to watch the changing of the guard. That is always a site to see. Add that one to the bucket list as well.
After that, we headed off to WWII Memorial. Of course it was great to see as well. I think last time I was there, I completely missed the gold stars. There are 400 gold stars on this wall, to represent the more than 400,000 who died.

Finally, we went to see Iwa Jima. This time, on our ride there, our program assistant read a story to us. It was taken from the book, Flags of our Fathers, by James Bradley. It was a great lead in to visiting the site. I haven't heard of this book before. But after our program assistant and bus driver told me the book was great, I decided to get it. I found it today while at the Air & Space Museum. (So once I read it, if anyone would like to borrow it, let me know.)

Evening time, our groups split up. One group went to a baseball game, and my group went to see Shear Madness at the Kennedy Center. We had a fun time getting there and back. We had the joy of taking the Metro (subway and bus system). The actors did a great job. Just not too sure about some of the content. Especially when there are a bunch of middle school students in there as well.

Day 6 - Delegation Day.

CWF - Day 4

Capitol Hill day. We had ourselves a busy day today. We met with Rep Boswell and Latham and Senator Grassley. Senator Harkin got held up in some meetings. We had group pictures taken, and the students got to talk with them for a few minutes. In between our meetings, we had a tour of the Capitol, visited the Library of Congress, and sat in the gallery of the House.

For those of you that have heard the news, there was a shooting today in DC at the Holocaust Museum. At the time of the shooting, we were just arriving to the Library of Congress. We took immediate action concerning our students, and no longer allowed them to walk around in the building without a chaperone. We are scheduled to go to the museum on Friday, but not sure if those plans will pan out anymore. It will be an intense day, since someone mentioned that it is also Anne Frank's 80th birthday.

But here are a few pics from the day.

Rep Boswell

Rep Latham

Senator Grassley

Tomorrow.....Arlington Cementary, WWII Memorial, Iwo Jima in the morning, and I will be going to Shear Madness in the evening.



Oh, and Clarks!!!! Guess who I met today. Emily! (I look extremely short. She had heels on...I didn't.) I thought I would get a pic with her to prove that we met. So there you go. The most up-to-date pic of your sister.

CWF - Day 3

The National Zoo. When I first walked in to this zoo, I thought it was quite small. However, I was easily deceived. The first few exhibits I visited, there was a bit of a misty haze, since there was a pretty heavy thunderstorm earlier in the morning. Also, not all the animals were out quite yet, or they were in their pens, since they were getting clean.

But, here are a few pics that I took on my zoo venture.

If you would like to look at the rest of my pictures, head on over to here.

Tomorrow....Capitol Hill Day!

CWF - Day 2 - Part 2

A night view of Washington, DC. Wow. This place is pretty much amazing at night. Even though I have been here before, I never really got a good 'night view' of DC. I think this is one thing that everyone should have on their 'bucket list', and actually achieve it! What made these 'views' even better, CWF has done a fantastic job of training our program assistant that we have assigned to our group. (Believe it or not, we have a gal from Iowa leading our group.) On our bus rides on the way to the sites, she gives us some commentary about the site, details you don't normally hear, and lots of other good facts. It really makes this a completely different trip having a 'certified tour guide' guiding us around. (Yes, CWF has their program assistants get certified in guiding tours....and I'm thankful for it.)

On to the 'view'. We started out at the Jefferson Memorial. Did you know that on the back side of Jefferson's statue, there are some significant features that don't normall belong there? They represent 5 items. Here are the ones I remember: corn represents agriculture and its importance, tobacco for commerce, books, pillar, and an eagles wing. Sorry I can't remember what the last 3 are for. But you would understand if you were hearing all of these new and interesting facts.

One more thing regarding this memorial. Did you know that one of the Presidents had some trees cut down so he would have a view of the Jefferson Memorial?

While at Jefferson Memorial, look at what we saw fly by.

Then on to Franklin D Roosevelt Memorial. This place was a little busy, so I didn't get all the pictures I wanted. Can anyone tell me how many terms Roosevelt was in office? Well, it was four. So with his memorial, they set it up with 'four' different rooms/areas, each to represent a term in office. The first term had a waterfall that dropped straight down. This was to represent the Depression. The second term represented the new deal....I believe (again, information overload). This one had a waterfall with a stair-step drop. There were also some depictions of a husband and wife struggling, as well as a line of men waiting in a bread line. There were also some big 'rolling pin' type things (as our p.a. called them) that were like stamps. It left a raised image when 'rolled'. Third room was when the war started.....that he hated. But, he knew we needed to go to war. In here there were big stone blocks scattered around, with a waterfall (that didn't work) that would have had water coming out in random directions/places. The fourth room had a waterfall that represented his previous years in office, combined all in to one. There were also steps that had a timeline of all that went on in his life. I ran out of time taking pictures, so wasn't able to get all I wanted. And with having so many groups there, I wasn't even able to see the statue of FDR in his military cloak, with his dog next to him.

Room/Term 1

Room/Term 2

Room/Term 3

Room/Term 4

Then to my favorite....Lincoln Memorial. By this time, it was getting dark. Dark enough were it was hard to get some pictures standing on the the memorial steps, looking towards the reflecting pond and seeing the Washington Monument (with the Capitol in the background). I also handed my camera over to a couple of girls here, because their camera batteries were dead. And after just a few pictures, mine started flashing also. They still got some great pictures.

After Lincoln, we visited the Korean and Vietnam War Memorials. It was quite dark by then, and hard to take pictures. But the girls did get some good ones.

So today was a day of lots of walking around, and educational, but yet fun. Because there is no way I want to post all the pictures, go here to check out the rest of them. Tomorrow....the National Zoo.

CWF - Day 2 - Part 1

This morning, we made our way to Mt. Vernon, VA, to see the home of George Washington. I have been there once before, but I didn't get to see as much as I saw today. When we arrived on the grounds, we took a tour of the mansion and kitchen. We then made our way past a bunch of out buildings...additional living quarters, smoke house, wash house, coach house, stables, and headed to the Wharf. This is located right along the Potomac River. It was quite nice down there. We then 'hiked' up a hill to see the Washington's tomb. Then back-tracked a bit to go see the farm. Being the Iowa farmkids that we are, we had to see the farm. (There wasn't much of anything going on at the farm. No livestock and crops that didn't look very good.) But we did make it to the 16-sided barn.

When we all got hot and wanted some air conditioning, we went in to the museum and education center. We spent about 1 hour walking around, looking at exhibits.

Most of the pictures I took are from things outdoors. Cameras are not allowed in the mansion, so no pictures from there. But I did take some off the back (front?) porch, looking out at the Potomac River. (Sorry Carl....there aren't rocking chairs there. Just a bunch of green straight back chairs hooked together. [which I did get a picture of]) But here are a few of the ones I liked best. You can find the rest here.

Tonight......Washington DC at night. And I can't wait for it!

CWF - Day 1

This week I have the opportunity to be a chaperone for the Citizenship Washington Focus trip for youth from Iowa. There are 33 youth and 5 chaperones. The trip actually began yesterday, June 6, when we left Iowa at 7am, and will end once we return to Iowa on Saturday, June 13. Even though the trip started yesterday, I am saying that it officially started today, since we just rode in a bus all day yesterday.

Today, after driving another 3 hours to get there, we visited Gettysburg, PA. We then got to walk around the welcome center/museum for a few minutes. Then we loaded the bus again and headed off on our tour. We had a certified tour guide come on our bus, ride around with us, and tell us all facts and information you don't read about in your history books. (But don't ask me to repeat any of it.....there was so much information!) It has been a gorgeous day, so a day for some great pictures.

We are all at the National 4-H Center now, and begin our evening of activities at 5pm, that will continue until 11pm. My goal is to write about each days activities with some highlights and pictures. I also made a picasa site that I will be uploading my pictures, as well as some of the youth's pictures to this site for everyone to share.

You can find that here. Here are a few of my favorites from the day.

A glance at day 2....Mount Vernon.