Wednesday & Thursday & Why Don't I Just Chuck Friday in Here While I'm at it?

Sorry about the lateness of this post, and lack of pictures. The person in charge of this (Johanna) left their powercord in Blue Bell so their laptop is dead, and this is just a "quick" update from my (Devon) phone. Things have also been quite busy, with early mornings and late nights, but we're driving to Monticello right now so I have some time.

On Wednesday morning we visited several memorials, including Martin Luther King Jr., Lincoln, Vietnam, Korean, and World War Two. After that we went to the Old Post Office for lunch and some of us visited the top of the tower. Now that the Washington monument is closed, it's the best view of D.C.

After the post office we went to the Smithsonians of American and Natural History, between which we split a few hours. We then went to where we had parked and ate supper. After that we drove along to the National Cathedral, an Episcopal Presbyterian church where we discovered that the power had gone out, but we were still given an impromptu question session before they closed. The cathedral was badly damaged by the earthquake last year, and then three days later their large repair crane collapsed, crushing five cars and ripping the front off a building (miraculously, no one was injured). We went to the FDR and Jefferson memorials next.
After that we went back to the Mansours, where we had a party for Mrs. Mansour, as it was her birthday.

On Thursday we woke up at 6 for the third day in a row, and after breakfast headed out for Arlington National Cemetery to watch the changing of the guard and visit JKF's grave and the Marine Corp memorial.

Mr. Bouwman had been dropped off to pick up tickets to the Holocaust Museum, but they were for later than we could make, so we went over to the Smithsonian of Air and Space.  After that we go to meet with a high ranking member of the State Department who goes to the Mansour's church, who told us about being a career diplomat. 

We then rushed to the Holocaust Museum to visit before it closed.  Some of us ended up being "kicked out" before we were finished going through the museum. After that we went back to the Mansour's, the shortest day so far, for supper and an awesome evening.

Today, Friday, three of the Mansour kids are coming with us to Monticello because they get a day off school (they didn't get any snow days this winter, but their schedule accounts for some).  We've been getting along really well, especially since this is the first time that we're roughly the same age (Greg is 16 and Jennifer is 17). 

Tonight, D.V., we're going to clean up and stay up all night until we leave for the airport at 2:30 for our 3 flights around 6, and we'll arrive within a few minutes of each other in Seattle at noon.

Tuesday - May 22

     We ate breakfast at the Mansour's today, and then left at 6:50 AM. We took off on the drive to D.C. We started off the day by going to the Capital Building. They had intense security and we had to throw away all food, drinks, and perfumes. Thankfully Mrs. Faber was quick thinking, and put everything we lost into one bag, and Kelsey F was willing to go dumpster diving for it when we finished.  We watched a short presentation, then got a guided tour of the capital building. Then we picked up tickets from our State Senator, Patty Murray's office. These tickets allowed us to enter the Senate and House galleries. The House was on vacation for a week because of the Memorial Day weekend, but there was someone explaining the process of the State of the Union address. In the Senate gallery, they were debating a bill. 

Here is a group of students around the Freedom Statue:

 This is the ceiling at the Capital Building:

 Here we are on our tour:

 This is the Declaration of Independence:

 This is the Capital Building:

We took the underground tunnel to the Library of Congress where we checked out Jefferson's Library, and the Great Hall. We also saw the Gutenberg Bible. 

This is the Great Hall - The pillars are made up entirely of marble...

 This is a close up of the ceiling at the Great Hall

 Here is the building:

     After this, we went for lunch in Union Station, which was much fun.Then we went on the DC Duck tour. We didn't recieve our duck mouth quackers until the very end, but when we did it was VERY loud.
The boat was called the Lucky Duck, and was made for WWII.

 Here we all are on the boat/car!

After the DC Duck tour, we went to the National Museum of the American Indian.  Then we took off through the deadly DC Traffic on our way home.
 We then had lasagna and salad and french bread for supper at the Mansours.

Monday - Leaving Bluebell and off to DC!!

We started off the morning in our normal fashion, bright and early, and left our beloved Blue Bell and our awesome billets and set off for Washington DC! 

We passed through Amish town along the way for a HUGE smorgasbord. Everyone filled themselves up with the all you can eat buffet and once again we were on the road! 

A bunch of us got some sweet hats in NYC! They are great for early mornings when you don't feel like doing your hair!

Stopping at one of the lovely rainy monuments for a group picture.

On top of a tall watch tower!

We love pictures!

Proof that we have the best chaperons ever! 

The weather was, unfortunately, horrid and rained the entire day! Thankfully the weather was a lot warmer here in the rain then it would have been at home, so we were able to see the silver lining in the situation. While the plan was to spend a lot of time at Gettysburg, the rain put a damper in our situation and we found ourselves with a lot of spare time. We searched for some random activities and settled on bowling. We had an AWESOME time. Two rounds were played, the first was regular bowl, the second was crazy style. The rules are as follows: 

1. Opposite hand

2. On one knee

3. Between your legs forwards 

4. Sitting 

etc...

After the bowling we went to KFC for dinner and headed off to the Mansour's where we met the family and played a fantastic game of Taboo (thanks to the Hankos). Then we headed off to bed for the bright and early start the next morning to DC!!

 

Sunday - Bluebell

Sunday: the day of rest. This definition definitely fit our day. It was hot and sunny and we got to sleep in till 8! We had two amazing sermons by Rev. Kok and no one fell asleep because we all knew he would be watching.

We all had breakfast at our respective billets houses and then set off for church by 10. The size of the church doubled when our class filed in. Mrs. Fluck, the famous maker of caramel brownies, was glad to see the church full again.  We greatly enjoyed the brownies she brought over! They are even better when authentically made!

After the first service we lunched with our billets and then the church building was graced with our smiling faces once again.

Potluck! A huge bounty of food was set before us that night! Filled with chicken and every good thing! It was great having a home cooked meal! Bluebell was very welcoming for us! The boys even discovered a new favorite game; Taboo.

Day #3 - Philadelphia

We started the day off with a big breakfast at the Kok's house. It was delicious! Then we piled into the cars and drove off to explore the town of Philadelphia. Our first stop was  going to the Eastern State Penitentiary. We went on a guided tour with Nick, our awesome guide... The Penitentiary was built to look like a castle, as an intimidation factor. We learned that although it would stink to live in complete silence, they had pretty good lodgings at first! We also learned that money CAN buy you happiness (or at least a better cell) *cough* Al Capone *cough*.
Here is the outside towers that a guard would be able to sit and watch over the walls in case anyone tried to escape.

 This is the inside - each door was a separate cell..

We left the Penitentiary to go visit the National Constitutional Center. Here we watched a short presentation, and toured the museum after. They had a sweet exhibit with all the forefathers' statues, and this was the only place we were allowed to take pictures.

After this, we laid outside for a bit, and walked over to Macy's to see the biggest organ in the US, and the Philadelphia City Hall. Unfortunately, were weren't able to get into the City hall to visit. 

These are all the pipes of the organs.

Here you can see Independence Hall. Unfortunately our tour guide was not quite a Nick or Jim from our previous tours, but we still enjoyed where our history started.

We took a short break because we were ahead of schedule and stopped in this neat street. Here is the oldest residential street in the US. Today it is still inhabited... by rich people. Displayed are some tacky tourists.

Next we visited Betsy Ross's house. We rested at her fountain and pet her "cats". She loved cats.

As stated earlier we had a lot of free time before dinner so the group stopped at the Delaware River where some people rested while others played. There was a large dredge ship docked nearby which the boys (and several girls) toured, the rest of the girls caught up on vitamin D.

Benjamin Franklin's Garden: pictured here are some wanna-be signer statues. It took them a while to get to the pose and still they are lacking the muscles of the signer :D

Group shot right before dinner. Don't we look hungry?

DINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNER!

The entertainment of the evening. Want to see your fork marry your spoon? Ask Sterk to perform the ceremony. Darren's fork is the happy father of a recently married spoon! This is where sporks come from. True story. Food was.... unique. Just kidding it was awesome.