HEY!!!! It's the princess, back from her Washington DC/New York tour with the Ko'olauloa Children's Choir. It was a really great experience. We traveled with Smithsonian Student Travel (SST) and Manhattan Concert Productions (MCP). They made sure we saw the most important things around New York and DC (which was a lot). Since we only had 6 days to see all the sights the tour was kind of rushed, but that's OK... i still had fun. We got about 3-5 hours of sleep each day because of all the sightseeing, but i didn't mind. OK, now for the day-by-day agenda.
Sunday, June 7 ~ DAY 1
The family went to sacrament meeting and went home right after. We had a family prayer and we said our good-byes. =( Dad dropped me off at Lisa Wagner's house at 11:30 am. Then roll call and the chaperone's passed out name tags, snacks, and coupons (for our shopping). Our bus came at 12. We loaded the luggage's onto the bus, we had prayer meeting, last-minute instructions, and we were off by 12:30. We reached the airport at 1pm and had to check in all 40 kids (and chaperone's) and their luggage's (good thing everyone only had 1 luggage) it took us about an hour. Our United Airlines flight boarded at 4:15pm, so we had 2 hours to kill. It was an 8 1/2 hour plane ride. I couldn't sleep. The only fun thing during the flight was when lightning hit our plane. The plane shook violently, the TVs and the lights went off for a minute. This wasn't a non-stop flight to DC, so we had to stop in Chicago. We got to Chicago at 6 am (midnight Hawaii time) and it was now Monday. It was like time sped up.
Monday, June 8 ~ DAY 2
We did so much this day.We almost missed our plane but, the pilot kindly waited for us. Another 2 1/2 hours in a plane... I think I'm getting sick of planes. We reached DC at 9 am, picked up our luggage's and met our tour guide Becky. It was really hot and sunny. She took us to the Fashion Centre (a really big mall) to eat breakfast. We then headed to the Smithsonian Institution. There are 19 museums and 9 research centers, it's HUGE!!!!! I went to the Air and Space Museum, and the National Museum of American History. The Air and Space Museum is all about, well... Air and Space. There are huge models of planes, spaceships, and even missiles. The Wright brothers are also there, along with their first successful airplane that is displayed at eye-level. IN the Museum of American History, you learn about Abraham Lincoln, Medicine, the Civil War. You could see the First Ladies inaugural gowns, and Julia Child's actual kitchen. we then had lunch at the food court in the museum. (did you know that each one of the 19 museums has their own food court). We left the Smithsonian and headed to the State Capitol. We got a tour of the State Capitol (man it's HUGE!!!!!) We saw the Rotunda, the National Statuary Hall, and the Supreme Court Chamber. We had to leave early because we ran overtime. We rushed to meet group 2 at the Hart Senate Office Building. We met Senator Daniel Akaka and we sang our chant for him. The acoustics were the best!!!! We sounded awesome!!! Senator Akaka said a few words and answered our questions, and then we took with him pictures. We hopped on our buses and headed to Union Station to eat dinner. It is gigantic!!!! I mean just HUGE, and there's even real gold on the ceiling. After dinner, we had a night tour of Washington DC. We went to the Washington Monument, the Korean Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the World War 2 Memorial, and we passed by the Pentagon. And that was it for that day. We drove to our hotel in Maryland, checked in, and went right to sleep, excited for the days to come.
Sunday, June 7 ~ DAY 1
The family went to sacrament meeting and went home right after. We had a family prayer and we said our good-byes. =( Dad dropped me off at Lisa Wagner's house at 11:30 am. Then roll call and the chaperone's passed out name tags, snacks, and coupons (for our shopping). Our bus came at 12. We loaded the luggage's onto the bus, we had prayer meeting, last-minute instructions, and we were off by 12:30. We reached the airport at 1pm and had to check in all 40 kids (and chaperone's) and their luggage's (good thing everyone only had 1 luggage) it took us about an hour. Our United Airlines flight boarded at 4:15pm, so we had 2 hours to kill. It was an 8 1/2 hour plane ride. I couldn't sleep. The only fun thing during the flight was when lightning hit our plane. The plane shook violently, the TVs and the lights went off for a minute. This wasn't a non-stop flight to DC, so we had to stop in Chicago. We got to Chicago at 6 am (midnight Hawaii time) and it was now Monday. It was like time sped up.
Monday, June 8 ~ DAY 2
We did so much this day.We almost missed our plane but, the pilot kindly waited for us. Another 2 1/2 hours in a plane... I think I'm getting sick of planes. We reached DC at 9 am, picked up our luggage's and met our tour guide Becky. It was really hot and sunny. She took us to the Fashion Centre (a really big mall) to eat breakfast. We then headed to the Smithsonian Institution. There are 19 museums and 9 research centers, it's HUGE!!!!! I went to the Air and Space Museum, and the National Museum of American History. The Air and Space Museum is all about, well... Air and Space. There are huge models of planes, spaceships, and even missiles. The Wright brothers are also there, along with their first successful airplane that is displayed at eye-level. IN the Museum of American History, you learn about Abraham Lincoln, Medicine, the Civil War. You could see the First Ladies inaugural gowns, and Julia Child's actual kitchen. we then had lunch at the food court in the museum. (did you know that each one of the 19 museums has their own food court). We left the Smithsonian and headed to the State Capitol. We got a tour of the State Capitol (man it's HUGE!!!!!) We saw the Rotunda, the National Statuary Hall, and the Supreme Court Chamber. We had to leave early because we ran overtime. We rushed to meet group 2 at the Hart Senate Office Building. We met Senator Daniel Akaka and we sang our chant for him. The acoustics were the best!!!! We sounded awesome!!! Senator Akaka said a few words and answered our questions, and then we took with him pictures. We hopped on our buses and headed to Union Station to eat dinner. It is gigantic!!!! I mean just HUGE, and there's even real gold on the ceiling. After dinner, we had a night tour of Washington DC. We went to the Washington Monument, the Korean Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the World War 2 Memorial, and we passed by the Pentagon. And that was it for that day. We drove to our hotel in Maryland, checked in, and went right to sleep, excited for the days to come.
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