Washington DC with the 8th grade.....Again About This Page:

[chezp]

I had a bad feeling about the itinerary as well. I was hoping I wouldn't be right though. Sorry it didn't go great.

[Huntermom]

My understanding of school trips (and I was blessed never to have had to chaparone) is that they are packed with activities to make sure the kids are exhausted at night. It may not make the best vacation, but it makes for less opportunity for trouble.

Maybe you, Abby and Lenny can do you own DC trip and really get to enjoy the city.

[Pris]

Originally Posted by Huntermom

My understanding of school trips (and I was blessed never to have had to chaparone) is that they are packed with activities to make sure the kids are exhausted at night. It may not make the best vacation, but it makes for less opportunity for trouble.

That's definitely the philosophy of trips with youth.

[revral]

Sorry but not surprised to hear that the trip was a more of a miss than a hit. I participated in Close Up my senior year which was/is a week long trip to DC filled with educational activities (speakers, monument visits etc.) however (at least at my school and I assume that it's true for other schools as well) your participation is by invitation only and the school staff decided which students were invited to participate. So while there were hundreds if not thousands of kids there from around the country not only were there the teacher(s) from each school but also the guides/leaders for each group. They also made it extremely clear that the policy was you cause trouble and your parents would be contacted and you'd be on the first plane home. I enjoyed it but I've always been interested in history, government etc. and can see how someone who isn't interested in those things or has developmental or learning issues wouldn't. I do hope that you, Lenny & Abby are able to make your own trip to DC that all three of you can enjoy because it's an amazing place with lots of interesting things to do and see.

[Colexis Mom]

Sorry the trip didn't go as planned!

[lsugirlinutah]

I agree with the "exhausted children" philosophy, but I also think that in many cases it is a one and only trip for some of these kids, so they are purposely packed full because they try to see as much as they can in a weekend because the kids may never be back. These trips are super hard, dehydrating, and exhausting.

I still want to hear about it!

[Pax]

Originally Posted by CinderAbby

Time we were expected up in the morning: 6:15
Time we arrived at the hotel most nights: 10 pm

... with two hundred twelve-to-fourteen year old kids? That's a recipe for disaster, right there.

Teenagers need MORE sleep than adults. 8-10 hours of it (compared to us adults who can get by on as little as 6 or 7 for extended periods). Figure the kids need time to get into bed each night, plus time to be up and about the next day ... unless they all skipped every single act of basic personal hygeine, that's at least an hour of "not sleeping", probably more ... so these kids were expected to behave, and keep going, on 7 hours of sleep per night, maybe less?

Dumb. That's all I can say: dumb.

[CinderAbby]

Dumb. That's all I can say: dumb.

I'll go with your terminology Sean. Mines not board friendly.


Okay everyone, the good news is I do have my TR all typed up. Thankfully my second job is slow on Sunday's and I can read - or in this case write a TR - in between waiting on customers so I plan on starting to actually post it tomorrow. I'd do it now but I'm getting really tired so I'd rather wait until I'm fully awake and less apt to make a mistake.

[MickeyWatch]

Sorry the trip didn't work out too well for the two of you. Field trips aren't usually the best way to see anything, whether it is the Zoo, Washington DC, or museum.
DD has her class field trip tomorrow to Navy Pier, Millennium Park, Buckingham Fountain and a bowling alley, all in Chicago. No overnight trips for her Catholic grammar school. Lots to cram into one day. I'm glad I'm not a chaperone on this one.

[Katie]

Originally Posted by Huntermom

Maybe you, Abby and Lenny can do you own DC trip and really get to enjoy the city.

Yikes sorry it didn't go better, but you are 1 trip closer to Disney!

[CinderAbby]

Tuesday morning, I was up at the nice, early time of 4:40 am. I stayed in bed for just a couple more minutes before I got up to take my shower, then I woke Abby up. I wasn’t particularly looking forward to the trip as I still expected melt downs and for things not to go smoothly. I finished what little packing I had left to do while Abby showered and got ready and then I used her iPad to see what kind of weather I should expect during our days in DC. Tuesday and Friday were looking nice but for Wednesday and Thursday mid 80 degree weather and showers were predicted. I had rain coats and umbrellas if we needed them but I was hoping we wouldn’t. Before we left, Abby mentioned how the kids could take movies with them. She wanted Frozen, Night at the Museum and Night at the Museum 2. While Abby was getting them, my mother made the comment to me that 8th graders besides Abby probably wouldn’t want to watch "cartoons" (they’re not cartoons, they’re animated movies). I said I didn’t know if they would or not but Abby wanted to take Frozen, so what was the harm? If we didn’t watch it, we didn’t watch it. At 5:50 we were ready to go and mom drove us to the school. Lenny didn’t bother to get out of bed but we said goodbye to him before we left.

　

Just as we were pulling into one entrance to the school, we saw the motor coaches (we had a total of 5 of them) heading to the other entrance to the school. Mom parked the car, we got out and headed over to where we were suppose to be - at Bus 3. All the bags plus cases of water all got loaded onto the bus and once everyone finally showed up, we left. We were scheduled to leave school at 6:30 but we didn’t leave until 6:45. Kids were allowed to bring movies with them as I mentioned and ironically enough, almost all of them were Disney. As soon as we left though, kids wanted a movie put in but we were told later. The teachers were hoping the kids would fall asleep, but they didn’t. They all chatted for a few minutes but within 15 minutes of the trip, they were really quiet but not asleep.

　

Around 9 am we stopped at a rest area. Now with 5 bus loads of kids, you would think we’d stop at a big rest area. You know the kind - the ones with huge bathrooms, a food court, a news stand type of store, etc. Well that’s not what we stopped at (shaking head). What we stopped at had a comfort castle (portable toilet, whatever you want to call it) outside, a vending machine outside, four or five vending machines inside and two small bathrooms. The ladies room had only 5 working stalls and with over 200 students and teachers, at least half of them female, it was quickly apparent we were going to be there a while. I don’t know who’s idea it was but one of the teachers finally stood at the door to the mens room and wouldn’t let anyone in there but the girls just so we could get back on the road. Once we were back on the road, our first movie of the trip was put in. By popular vote, Frozen was what we watched. Going back to moms comment though (8th graders wouldn’t want to watch it) I just have to say we had two copies just on our bus and another bus which didn’t have a copy asked if they could borrow one because they wanted to watch the movie too.

　

About 11 am, lunch was finally passed out. Our local Subway provided our lunch for that day. We had six inch subs (turkey, ham or veggie), a bag of chips, a cookie and a warm water. It was good but since Abby and I didn’t really eat anything before we left (I didn’t want either one of us to get sick), a twelve inch sub would have been appreciated. Sometime after lunch, we were finally close to our first destination - the 9/11 Memorial and the Statue of Liberty. And this is where Abby was starting her first meltdown. Luckily it didn’t escalate into a huge one but to get to where we were going, we took the Lincoln Tunnel. Being a tunnel and being in the city, there’s always back ups in traffic and it took a while to get out of the tunnel but it really bothered Abby. Frozen had finished and the teacher refused to put in a new movie ("we’ll be there in just a few minutes, we don’t have time for a movie" ) so Abby had nothing else to pay attention to. I could hear her making the noises she makes and even though I told her it was okay (she was sitting a few seats away from me) she was getting worse. I went back to her, made her get up and come sit with me. I was able to get her to remain calm until we got out of the tunnel but I just knew that it wasn’t going to be an easy trip based on how quickly the first meltdown came. Actually let me rephrase that. Before we left, I expected meltdowns and I knew it wasn’t going to be the easiest of trips, but I didn’t expect a meltdown so quick.

　

　

We finally made it to our destination - wherever it was. The bus parked, we got out and met our tour guide (I think his name was Chris) and then we walked to the 9/11 Memorial.

　

Looking up at the new World Trade Center building

　

I have to say I was really expecting this to be moving, but for me, it wasn’t for some reason. I’m not sure why. All I know is the tour guide talked to us, we walked around and saw the fountains, we saw the new museum (from the outside only) and I felt pretty much nothing.

　

　

　

I still think today what I thought all those years ago - that it should never have happened - but other than feeling sad for the people who lost loved ones, I didn’t feel anything else. After leaving there, we then made our way on foot to Battery Park for the Statue of Liberty ferry.

　

This was a memorial to the Firefighters - it was sunny and there were a lot of people so it was hard to tell what I was taking a picture of

　

This was originally between the twin towers - and this is how it was found after everything was cleaned up. It was then moved to Battery Park according to our tour guide

　

The new World Trade Center - we were in line for the Statue of Liberty.

　

Here there were two lines - I don’t know what the difference was between them - but we got into the shorter line. Then we had to go through security, which was much easier than airport security. After going through the metal detector and sending our stuff through the scanner though, that’s where another meltdown was going to start. They had us packed into a small space with probably a couple hundred people. There was no where to move but the security people kept telling us to move away from the tables (where people could unload their bins). It was hot, noisy and wall to wall people - three things that really don’t agree with Abby. I just kept talking to her trying to make light of it "it’s good practice for Disney this year" and just like on the bus, it didn’t fully escalate (thankfully) and then we were able to move outside. Once outside however, we had to wait again for the ferry and because they hold so many people, it took a while for unloading. After a couple of minutes, Abby didn’t see people getting off so she was getting upset that we weren’t being allowed on. There were still people on board, but they made no attempt to hurry and get off so all we could do was wait.

　

We got on the ferry, Abby found a seat and in less time than it took to unload, we were on our way to the Statue of Liberty. When I had packed for Abby, I told her all her friends had to stay home and with the way the trip was starting out, when I saw a stuffed bear dressed like the Statue of Liberty, I bought it for Abby. I knew she’d need something to hug when we finally got to the hotel that night.

　

We made it to Liberty Island and even though at first we were told we were not getting off, it turned out we had to get off the ferry. The busses were going to pick us up in New Jersey and we were on the New York ferry. We met our tour guide by the big flag pole on the island, he talked to us about the statue and then we were allowed to walk around for a bit and look around. I know this sounds really bad but I was far more impressed with the Statue of Liberty than I was with the 9/11 Memorial. I took a bunch of photos, bought a couple of souvenirs for home and even called home to mom. I actually had 5 bars on my phone and I figured it would be funny to call and say "I’m calling you from the Statue of Liberty." On a side note, while I was in the gift shop, Abby had walked away with a friend who was tired and wanted to go sit down so they left together. I finally found them sitting in the shade.

　

　

We made our way to the ferry to New Jersey and eventually made it back to the busses. We were back on the highway about 5 PM to head to our next stop - some rest area somewhere for dinner (when the kids asked where we were going, they got "we’ll be stopping at a rest area in a little bit"). The kids wanted another movie put on but they were told there wasn’t time to watch anything. We finally made it to the rest area at 7:15 PM - one in Delaware - with no restaurants Abby has ever eaten at. She decided to eat at Popeye’s when I told her it was a chicken place similar to Kentucky Fried Chicken (something she does like). The kids (and I) were only given $10 to spend which IMO wasn’t enough for this particular location. A 3 piece chicken meal alone was $7.49 and I don’t even remember if it included a drink. All I know is between Abby’s ten and my ten, I still needed to take extra cash out of my wallet to pay for dinner. Could we have eaten cheaper? I suppose but when you have a kid that can be very picky, eating cheap isn’t always an option. Dinner was okay. It was something to eat but it certainly isn’t anything I’d order again if I had other choices. Yes, I know I had other choices that night but when you have bus loads of kids and only a few choices, lines develop pretty quickly so you pick one line and stay in it whether you really want it or not.

　

When dinner was finished, we got back on the bus and this time when the kids asked for something to watch, Modern Family was put on. I’m sorry, but I don’t see the appeal in this show. It was such a waste of time and even though I willed myself to fall asleep, I didn’t so for the next hour an a half, there was nothing to see or do but watch a sitcom that was played entirely too loudly (whereas Frozen was played much quieter so I didn’t even hear half the movie). Needless to say, we couldn’t get to the hotel fast enough for me. At 9:40, we finally pulled up and after the teacher explained everything she wanted explained, she told us we couldn’t get off the bus yet, we needed our keys. The kids were getting really noisy as they wanted off the bus too and the teacher was yelling into the microphone on the bus to be heard so Abby was getting very agitated. She ended up screaming and then crying - at which point we were told we could get off the bus and go stand on the sidewalk. Luckily as I was grabbing my stuff, the hotel person came with our keys so the teacher handed me ours, we got off the bus and we walked right to the hotel for our room. It was so nice once we got to our room - we were off the bus and we had peace and quiet. Abby was still upset though but went right to bed while I called home to talk to mom and Lenny. I was finally in bed about 10:30. The bed themselves were pillow tops, which I don’t particularly care for, but I was so exhausted the entire trip, I slept and slept well as I did get up feeling rested each morning.

　

The hotel itself I can’t say much about though. The kids themselves were to be in one of two places at all times - either in their assigned rooms (and not someone elses) or in the ballroom where breakfast was being served - and since I seemed to be treated like one of the kids, those are the only places I went to as well. The hotel wasn’t very welcoming either. They removed the vending machines and unplugged all the ice makers. As soon as we got off the elevators in the morning, we were herded right out the front door. At night when we returned, we were herded right to the stairs and elevators. Yes, I do realize that having that many kids can be a pain, but when you’re in a group where you have no time to go anyplace but what is scheduled, at 10 PM, it would have been nice to have a candy bar and a cold soda before bedtime. I have never had to drink so much warm water in my life. The school brought cases upon cases of water but all of it was kept underneath the busses and at the hotel, unless you had emergency meds that needed refrigeration, there was no fridge available to make any waters cold (nor was there ice like I mentioned).

　

So that’s how day one went - and it gives you a little insight into the rest of the week as well. Up next is day two.

[chezp]

My goodness, that was one heck of a long day and with so much packed into it - far too much by the sounds of it. I know people always say we pack a lot in, but good grief, I would never have attempted an itinerary like that.

[TinkerbellJenn99]

Oh my Darlene, I cannot even imagine. I am glad, now, that i did not attend any of the school sponsored trips. I much prefered to travel with friends or family and not have to deal with such a rigid structure and lack of common sense (no offense to your school's teachers). Though I can understand, too, that dealing with that many kids is a bit...chaotic perhaps, all of you were still paying customers, and the ice machines should have been accesible at the very least.

[Katie]

Geez, I'm tried just reading about that day. It would have been daunting with just a small family, can't believe it was done with such a large group!


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[lsugirlinutah]

This is already sounding a lot like our school trip. We stayed in fairly cheap hotels and ate places I don't usually eat (although I do love Popeye's!). I don't usually eat fast food, and that's all we ate the entire trip. However, I will say in the school's defense, that's about all kids that age will eat, so they cater to them rather than the adults. But I feel your pain.