#my gift to ccc 11 :heart: i was already making it but who cares

[biggreenstache7]

god giveth and god taketh away

redraw of

[kylieinwashington]

Monuments & Memorials

OK - I was toooooo tired to finish this last night - so here it is a day late.

Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018

It is almost 11:00 PM and we have been home less than 30 minutes.  We topped 20,000 steps in our quest to see and understand most of the Monuments and Memorials that ring the Mall and/or live close by.

During breakfast this morning the girls - who knows who started it - began singing songs from Hamilton.  It was so cute and went on and on.  Finally we had to began our day so we headed out about 8:45.  We had talked about the amazing gift James Smithson gave to the United States so of course our first outing this AM was to the Smithsonian Castle and James Smithson’s tomb - which looks a lot like a bathtub...

There are currently 17 Smithsonian Museums dedicated to science, history, art and culture and each one more fabulous than the next and free to everyone.  The weather today was glorious.  Sunshine and temps in the high 50 -maybe even the in 60! - had us shedding our coats and enjoying the two meals we shared outdoors today.  (More on our rather crazy outside dinner later!)

From the Smithsonian Castle we walked to the Washington Monument when Charlotte was our teacher.  Prior to our trip, I assigned all the kids the job of learning about a specific monument and being our teacher.  They were all very excited to take the teacher role - and today was the day.  Charlotte was well prepared and excited to present and she carefully positioned us to view the beautiful monument and hear her lecture.

The 555 foot Washington Monument is closed currently -  and indefinitely, according to the sign -  while they try to repair or replace the elevator that has not worked with enough regularity to open it to the public since the 2011 earthquake. It was open 3 years ago when I was here with Colin but closed again shortly after our visit.  Charlotte was a font of information and had our deepest attention.  She was very proud of her “speech” and so were we.

From there we walked to the World War II Memorial.  We prepped the kids with lots of talk of World War II and sent them to speak to one of the many volunteers about several subjects.

They had much work to do in their notebooks and moved around the monuments identifying one feature after another and understanding the symbolism it possessed.

From there we went to Signer’s island, a sweet little island that has the signature of all the 58 signers of the Declaration of Independence.  We talked about the risks these men were taking by signing the document as the action truly was high treason punishable by death.  I asked the kids to make rubbings of several of the signatures and as we did that we talked about who among us would have had the bravery to sign that document.  

The answer was simple - NONE of us.  Yes, if it had been left to the 6 of us, we would still be subjects of England.  Hmmmmm...

A picnic lunch was next and we sat in the magnificent sunshine and ate our lunch we had packed earlier in the day.  Perhaps the most interesting part of lunch were the very friendly Washington DC squirrels.  

Those little suckers KNEW we had food and they saw no reason why we couldn’t just share.  (But we didn’t.)

After lunch and squirrel shooing we headed to the Viet Nam War Memorial.  I CANNOT get through this without tears - no matter how many times I have been there.  We started at the Nurses Memorial statue (which was strewn with long stem roses) and the kids did not disappoint to look, think, reflect and try to understand.  I assured them that however they interpret any sculpture is correct but we pushed them to look deeper and think harder.  They saw the dedication, fear and exhaustion in the eyes of the nurses.  They identified the sandbags but didn’t know why they were there and when we told them they were horrified.  I KNOW these kids got more out of the statue than 99% of all adults who view it.

Next we looked up the names of soldiers on The Wall, one from Ann Arbor, Saline and Boulder, CO and then went to find them.  Moving.  

We talked about the design of the monument and the designer.  But nothing is more impactful that walking that wall and getting deeper and deeper into the list of dead and then actually seeing the name you are searching for - right before your eyes.

We finished this Memorial by visiting the Soldier’s Statues.  Again the kids were very insightful and willing to be pushed pass what you see on the first pass.  I love it.

Next up was The Korean War Memorial.  Here we talked about the United Nations Coalition and the very clever way in which the designer of the monument used the 19 soldiers and the reflective black marble to tell us about the 38th parallel that still divides the Korean Peninsula.  I was born during this hot mess and I am always struck with how long this has continued.  Sadly hate has a long shelf life.  :(

We walked right through the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial because we have big plans for that tonight but I could not miss taking this amazing pic!

Next we walked to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial.  I love the way the designer uses water to represent the mood/health of the nation.  I will forever be grateful for all the benefits of the CCC and the WPA.  Brilliant.  We talked about the soup kitchens and the “fireside chats” but mostly we focused on the quotes.  Every single quote holds true today and I wish the leaders of our country would embrace his caring empathic thoughts. 

 I truly enjoyed discussing these quotes with these brilliant young minds and I have hope that maybe their generation can clean up the mess we are are making.  Sigh....

Eleanor Roosevelt was next and we talked about “walking the walk.”  She was the perfect example of this.

Next up was the beautiful Thomas Jefferson Memorial with teacher Kylie.  

She was so excited and did a wonderful job - although she did have us move from the top to the bottom and right back up (our legs were sooooo tired) . The climbing, however was completely relevant and necessary because how else could we see the beautiful and significant frieze on the portico?  Well done!

This ended our major walking tour and all we had to do was jump on the Circulator bus and head to Union Station for dinner and our tour to see the remaining significant monuments.  But we missed the bus by about 3 minutes and had to wait for 27 minutes for the next one.  Then it was the slow roll to Union Station.  Gwynn read that restaurants in Union Station close at 6:00 on Sunday and our tour was a 6:30 and as the bus creeped down the roads the time ticked away.  To make things more stressful the inside lights of the bus stayed on which meant NO ONE could see outside and IF the driver was announcing the stop he was doing it in a tiny whisper - so we had no idea where we were and when we needed to get off.  I kept looking out of the window only to see myself which was NOT helpful.  I  had a map but I needed just ONE POINT OF REFERENCE - (just like the astronauts in Apollo 13!) - and finally Dylan said - Hey there is the Washington Monument!”  Bingo!!!!

We FINALLY arrived at Union Station at 6:01.  The kids are hungry - but not quite HANGRY - but it couldn’t be too far behind.  BUT the food places were open although people were already lining up for our tour we grabbed some food and went outside to wait.  We got food ASAP and headed outside where we ate on something that worked as a table but was NOT a table.

We boarded the bus to this view:

We spent 30 minutes at the MLK Jr Memorial and the kids used every second filling in their books and talking about the amazing quote on the walls surrounding the Memorial.  This makes my heart sing!

We spent an additional 30 minutes at the Lincoln Memorial and believe me that it was NOT enough time.  But what a wonderful time.

Finally, teacher Dylan was up for the Marine Corps Memorial - Iwo Jima.  He was prepared and fabulous.  I was very proud of all of our teachers today - and so were they.

Finally we boarded the Metro and headed “home.”  To say we were tired would be an understatement.

But I can say we had a day filled with education, thoughtful discussion and discovery - and THAT my friends is a day well done.

Stay tuned.