American Heritage Tour

(This is a long and possibly boring post.... sorry!!)

During Spring Break I was able to go on the American Heritage Tour with Irving Middle School as a chaperon. If you don't know what that is, it is where students in 8th grade go and tour many historical sites from New York City down to Washington, D.C. We were gone for 9 days and the hardest part for me was not being with my daughter and husband for those long 9 days. I won't lie, their were a few tear-filled nights because I was so homesick. But I could not pass up the opportunity to go on such an amazing trip for free!! So it was fun but I don't think I will ever go on such a long trip without my family again.

We did so much on this trip!!! We started in Washington, D.C. and first went and toured Fort McHenry, where the battle took place that Francis Scott Key was at when he wrote the national anthem. After that we were able to go tour the White House!!! Isn't that awesome! We were so excited. I almost wasn't able to get in because stupid me forgot my ID and the guards had my wrong SSN. I guess it is really hard to get into the White House. You have to apply and get approved before you go and then have photo ID. I left mine on the bus. Luckily, I was able to call the driver and have him meet us back at the white house. After running a few city blocks and sweet talking guards to let me cut a few lines, I was able to catch up with my group! We were able to have a tour guide and see many of the beautiful monuments around Washington. They were amazing!!! I wish I had pictures but my camera died that day. Sad. We were in D.C. for 2 days and were able to to tour the capital building (during a HUGE protest on the health bill, we were actually in Washington when the health bill passed and were able to see that Congress was out late deciding on it. Very neat.), go to the air and space museum, the American history museum, the Holocaust museum (if you want your heart to break I recommend this place, it is so sad what happened and to see so much of the actually items), and Arlington. Arlington was amazing. I didn't realize it was SO BIG! We had a tour guide for here and she was great. We also were able to watch the changing of the guard which was great too.

After D.C. we went to Pennsylvania and toured Gettysburg. After we went to an Amish village in a town called Intercourse, PA. Yes, you read the name correctly. We took a bus of hormone raging teenagers to a town called Intercourse!!! They that it was awesome and many left with shirts saying " I love Intercourse" with a tiny PA in the corner. The village was awesome though and had some amazing things. And I won't lie, I bought a little magnet with I love Intercourse on it because, come on!!! It's funny!!!

After that we headed to New York City!!! The kids were so excited. Personally I was scared because I thought I would lose a student. Good news though, all students were accounted for during this trip. We took a few great tours, went to the Empire state building, China town (little creepy), Liberty Island(I always thought the Statue of Liberty was bigger), Ellis Island, ground 0 of 9/11, Times Square, Trump Tower, and my favorite..... saw WICKED!!! It was so good. Anyone going to NY should definitely see a Broadway show and Wicked is fantastic!

We headed off the Boston after that and to be honest with you I was so exhausted by that time that I don't remember much about it. We did a walking tour in 32 degrees on the Freedom Trail which was neat but cold, went to Harvard, and few things that I was half asleep for. Oh, we also toured Concord and Lexington which was pretty neat. But I really liked Boston and would love to go there again. And for my defense, we were walking 8-10 miles a day and slept about 5 hours a night because we were so busy. Lots of walking + little sleep= one tired pregnant woman. It really was fun though. I would never do it again but it was fun!!!

The Capital with all the health bill rally. There were so many people!


At the American History Smithsonian. This is the dress Michelle Obama wore at the Inaugural Ball.

1600 Pennsylvania Ave.... the White House!!



Arlington Cemetery

Changing of the guard. Very neat.
There were Amish buggies all over when we were in Intercourse. This little boy was so cute peeking out at us!!


Liberty Island

Ford's Theatre, where President Lincoln was shot. Even though they still have plays there, they have kept where he was shot the same.

Wicked!!

Freedom Trail in Boston. It is a brick trail that you can walk and takes you to many historic places in the city.