As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
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It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
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If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Hi and Welcome to a TR that’s different from what I normally write. This one doesn’t involve Disney. What it does involve is 2 of my usual 3 "who’s" - me and Abby. Lenny will be staying home and working . Hopefully he won’t be driving mom crazy while we’re gone or vice versa.
Now to explain the title. Way back when I was in middle school, the 8th grade was taken on a trip to Washington DC through the school. I don’t know when they started going, all I know is my class went and I went with them. At that time, we flew to Washington, toured the museums and monuments, toured Williamsburg Virginia, we went to Busch Gardens Williamsburg, then we flew home. I don’t remember every single thing we did as that was 25+ years ago and I never took a camera. Now this year, Abby is in the 8th grade and school is still taking the kids to Washington. Because of Abby’s Autism, school understands this could be a tough trip on her and things were arranged so that I could join her on the trip hence the title.
This trip with Abby - and a little over 200 other 8th graders - will be quite different from my first school trip. First of all, the class size is double what mine was. I can’t imagine how hard it will be to keep track of that many kids (luckily I only have one to worry about). Next, we’ll be taking buses everywhere . Lastly, there will be no fun stuff like Busch Gardens. This trip will be all museums and monuments. The only "fun" thing - if you’re into it - will be going to Nationals Park to catch a ball game. I haven’t been into baseball since my dad died and I’m not sure about Abby. She never watches sports unless it’s something like figure skating. So with the itinerary that the school has planned (or rather the tour company that was used) I really have the feeling this trip is not going to be meltdown free. What it will be is four long days of being constantly on the move to places that I don’t think Abby is truly going to care about or even understand the significance of. While she might like the Smithsonian, I just don't think she’s going to "get" the other places.
Since this is a school trip, none of the planning was done by me. If it had been, plans would have been finalized and information sent out long before May 2nd (when I finally received the info from school). I also would have give some more details. Some are sadly lacking (how many adults are going, are kids going off in groups by themselves or with adults, etc). Regardless of how I would have done things, this is what our itinerary looks like:
Tuesday May 20th:
6:00 am - We have to be at the school by this time to board the motor coaches
6:30 am - We’ll leave the school and head to New York
12:00 pm - We’re suppose to be in New York by this time to take a ferry to the Statue of Liberty. After that, we’ll go to the 9/11 Memorial site
4:15 pm - We’ll leave New York and go to our hotel in Maryland
9:30 pm - We’ll finally be at the hotel.
Wednesday May 21st
7:00 am - We’ll start with some sort of breakfast from the hotel (one of the lacking details)
8:00 am - We’ll leave the hotel and go to the Newseum
11:00 am - We’ll have some sort of lunch at the Reagan International Trade Center (food court?)
12:00 pm - We’ll go to the Holocaust Museum
3:00 pm - We’ll go to Nationals Park for a ball game and have some sort of dinner while there
7:00 pm - We’ll go see the FDR, Jefferson and MLK Memorials (don’t know if we’re taking the bus or walking everywhere)
9:30 pm - We’ll finally be back at the hotel
Thursday May 22nd
6:45 am - We’ll once again start with some sort of hotel breakfast
7:45 am - We’ll leave the hotel and go to the Lincoln, Korean and Vietnam Memorials
11:30 am - We’ll have some sort of lunch at the Pentagon City Mall then we'll do the Museum of American History, the Natural History Museum and the Air and Space Museum.
4:30 pm - We’ll go have "picture stops" at the Washington Monument and White House then we’ll see the WWII Memorial
6:45 pm - We’ll have a "real" dinner at someplace called Magills
8:30 pm - We’ll be back at the hotel for the night
Friday May 23rd
7:00 am - We’ll start with a hotel breakfast than load up the buses
8:00 am - We’ll leave the hotel for the final time and go to Arlington National Cemetery where we’ll see the Kennedy Grave sites, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for the Changing of the Guard and the Challenger Memorial. We’ll finish our touring at the Iwo Jima Memorial.
11:30 am - We’ll leave DC and head for home
9:30 pm - Depending upon traffic (it will be Memorial Day weekend after all) this is the estimated time we’ll arrive back at the school.
So as I said, it’s a lot of go, go, go. I didn’t plan anything so details that I find important weren’t given. The only real details I got were the does and don’t for the kids - what not to bring, when phones can be used and when they can’t, hotel rules, bus rules, suggestions for what to bring etc. I’m not sure how this trip will go (smoothly or with meltdowns) but I’ll find out in about two weeks. Luckily, with everything else I have to do (working two jobs, school contract negotiation meetings, housework, etc) packing is the only thing I have to do for the trip - and that should be easy enough. Once we get home though, I’m not sure what my TR will be like. It could be bad, it could be good. It could have lots of pictures or none. It all depends upon how things go and what kind of time I have to write it before "life" takes over my time again. All I know is it will be different from my Disney TR’s - which for those that like when I write them, that will be happening sooner rather than later.
Thanks for joining me on my very short (in more ways than one - short in length and short in details) PTR. I’ll come back as soon as I can with the actual TR in whatever kind of form it takes (short, pictures only, whatever) for this trip.
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Good luck with the trip! I hope it turns out better (more fun for Abby) than you expect, but it's always good to be realistic. All the days are so long and packed!
(that linkis the official link and it lists hours, has a picture, and lists the eateries one will find in the food court)
It is quite possible you may be dining there under the tour group meal voucher program: Tour Groups | Ronald Reagan ITCDC . At the bottom of the page is a link to the meal voucher program menus.
My kids always loved DC (family there so a frequent vacation). I am sure Abby will too. You might want to ask if you need to stay with the group at all times. The time you have at three of the Smithsonian museums on Tuesday afternoon is pretty limited and and Abby m may do better to concentrate on one rather than speed through three. There are books you can get that describe exhibits (you may also be able to get it online at the Smithsonian website Smithsonian). Maybe you can check out exhibits with Abby and pick out a few things she wants to look at. My kids could easily spend a day at each. I would think the biggest issue may be having to rush if you want to get through three in 5 hours.
Also my kids loved the Holocaust museum because they studied it in school. Check out the website and I would make sure you and Abby familiarize yourselves with it beforehand. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum It looks like many of the exhibits have changed.
Washington DC is a favorite trip for us. I hope Abby enjoys at as much.
7:00 pm - We’ll go see the FDR, Jefferson and MLK Memorials (don’t know if we’re taking the bus or walking everywhere)
9:30 pm - We’ll finally be back at the hotel
2.5 hours, three monuments, and travel time to all three plus back to the hotel ... I suspect a bus. And I suspect not a whole lot of time at each monument.
Quote:
11:30 am - We’ll have some sort of lunch at the Pentagon City Mall then we'll do the Museum of American History, the Natural History Museum and the Air and Space Museum.
... three entire museums? In only five hours?
I seriously hope they plan to break into three groups, and offer the kids a choice of which one to go to ...
Quote:
6:45 pm - We’ll have a "real" dinner at someplace called Magills
... if by "real" dinner, they mean pizza. The only Magills I found in teh D.C. area is a place with games, a dance floor, and a buffet (prominently featuring pizza).
Think "Chuck E. Cheese" for tweens and teens - the kids will probably like it ( know I would have, at 13 or 14), but I think you should be prepared for a lot of noise and such. How does Abby do with sensory overstimulation?
2.5 hours, three monuments, and travel time to all three plus back to the hotel ... I suspect a bus. And I suspect not a whole lot of time at each monument.
Probably not - but that seems to be the "theme" of this trip - not a whole lot of time anywhere, except on the bus
Quote:
. three entire museums? In only five hours?
I seriously hope they plan to break into three groups, and offer the kids a choice of which one to go to ...
That's what I'm seriously hoping for myself. I think Abby would enjoy the Natural History Museum far more than the other two, especially if she could explore it for more than 5 minutes.
Quote:
... if by "real" dinner, they mean pizza. The only Magills I found in teh D.C. area is a place with games, a dance floor, and a buffet (prominently featuring pizza).
Think "Chuck E. Cheese" for tweens and teens - the kids will probably like it ( know I would have, at 13 or 14), but I think you should be prepared for a lot of noise and such. How does Abby do with sensory overstimulation?
With 200+ kids, plus chaperones, I'd guess you'll possibly have the whole place to yourself ...
Yeah, that's what I suspected and why I used quotes around the word real. Thanks for your input Sean though. I didn't realize that place even had a website so at least I'm not going to be surprised when we get there (I've been busy at work and really haven't had time to Google everything)
Once we get home though, I'll let you know if we do all three museums if we split into groups.
I know you will have a good time no matter what but you agenda explains why we have run in to so many groups of school kids literally running through museums. You have to with the agenda they came up with.
My kids always loved the Museum of natural History but that is one where we have encountered more school groups. Will having 30, not so quiet kids, speed by her (probably in to her if they are typical) bother Abby? If so maybe you can try a Disney strategy and start at the "back".
Do check out the Hope diamond though. I love the jewels even though I don't own/wear any.
My husband teaches 7th and 8th grade social studies and we chaperone the 8th grade trip to DC every fall. I agree with a previous poster, trips like this are just an overview of everything, you could easily spend a whole day at any one location, but we do the same thing - a few hours at a museum for example. A few other notes:
If it's the place I'm thinking of, the Reagan Trade Center does have a nice food court in it so that is where you will eat that day.
Jefferson memorial, FDR and MLK memorials are all close so I'm assuming you will be walking between those three.
Same thing with Lincoln memorial/ Vietnam/ Korean/ and WWII memorials are all within walking distance of each other if you are seeing those.
Definitely wear your tennis shoes- you will be doing a lot of walking, especially in Arlington (and there are a lot of hills in Arlington too!).
Hope all goes well, if you have any other questions let me know!
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. Hopefully he won’t be driving mom crazy while we’re gone or vice versa.
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Pixie Dust
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I hope it all goes well. 
Waiting for our next adventure after enjoying our Alaska cruise. 
Jenn
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