Saturday, April 26, 2014

Our Final Day in DC

It was a beautiful morning at Arlington, and the historical travelers were very attentive at Arlington National Cemetery as we toured the grounds, hit the highlights, and made our way to the Memorial Amphitheater.  The highlight was seeing four of the Class of 2018 lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier - what an honor for the students and for USM!  We hit the US Marine Corps Memorial, grabbed some lunch, and split time between the Art Gallery and Natural History Museum before heading back home.  Many of use had the privilege of seeing two Honor Flights arrive as we waited to depart DC - what a fitting end to an awesome week!

Friday, April 25, 2014

Gettysburg, Pandas, and Memorials

We began our day with a nice bus ride to the beautiful small town of Gettysburg, site of the most momentous military conflict in the Western Hemisphere.  Our historical tourists enjoyed the introductory movie and cyclorama, toured the Gettysburg Civil War Museum, and visited the site near Lincoln's famed Gettysburg Address. After lunch, we hit the battlefield and walked in the footsteps of the Union and Confederate soldiers from over 150 years ago. We hit the Washington Zoo on the way home and check out the pandas. After a yummy dinner of pasta, we toured the major memorials on the National Mall in the evening. Other great day in the nation's capital!

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

A Beautiful Evening on the Potomac

Massive slices of pizza, unlimited soda, three floors of a paddle bot, DJ spinning popular songs (I think they are popular) - what more can you ask for?  Check out some of the pics and video of the 2014 version of the Potomac River Boat Cruise here!

Wildcat Wendesday in Washington

When another beautiful day in the nation's capital as we toured all around, seeing incredible sites and in general having a great time in celebration of the birth of Mr. Schwieters.  Are awesome day began with a stroll down to the United States Air Force Memorial and the Pentagon 9/11 memorial. We haven't taking a group of kids to the Pentagon Memorial, and this will certainly be a yearly tradition.  We then headed out to the Udvar Hazy Air and Space Museum where we saw all about everything that flies (except for birds). Students toured the incredible exhibits, saw a bazillion different types of aircraft, and even piloted a few similar simulators of their own.  We took a quick stop to the Library of Congress, strolled around the Capitol grounds, and ended our afternoon at the enjoyable Newseum.  Everybody is putting on their dancing shoes as we are heading out to the Potomac River cruise in a couple of minutes. We will post some pictures of that a little later. It's great day in Washington DC!

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Tuesday - Taking DC by storm (actually, just a little light rain)


It was definitely a day to remember in the nation’s capital – and in Milwaukee, where half of our group spent Monday night!  After an early wake up call, the intrepid end of the alphabet travelers learned the power of the food voucher, stumbled on to the rescheduled flight, and made it to DC in no time.   The group became whole again at Ford’s Theater, where we saw “One Destiny”, a two person play detailing the assassination of our 16th President.  A solemn visit to the Holocaust Memorial Museum followed, where our young historians did Mrs. Reimer proud with their careful attention to the powerful exhibits.  After lunch, we hit everyone’s favorite museum, the American history Museum (well, at least one person’s favorite) and found out some interesting tidbits of information.  Our White House picture stop followed – hopefully it will make it in the yearbook!  We then visited the memorials of the initials guys – MLK, FDR, and TJ.  Students took pictures of important quotes and image, which we will hopefully use in class when we return.  A visit to nationals Park finished the night, here we say Albert Pujols hit his 500th home run and Abe Lincoln win the Racing Presidents.  All in all, a dull day – with a great bunch of young travelers!

It's a beautiful night for baseball!


Back at it at gate C19

It was an eventful evening for half of our travelers as we spent the first night of our Washington DC trip in the beautiful Best Western by the airport.  We are about to board the flight, so we should be in the nation's capital within a couple of hours. The kids of been great all evening, and our chaperones and parents of been awesome as well.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Looking for some DC apps?

Historical tourists, there are some super sweet apps out there that can make your DC experience even more educational and exciting.  You may want to try ...

  • Cel.ly will be our major medium of communication - you can download the app here!
  • Aris from iTunes - we used this for Lewis and Clark, and we could have some fun with it in DC as well.
  • Want an app for the cool stuff on the National Mall?  Check out the official app from iTunes and Google Play.
  • The Smithsonian has an app that covers many of its museums.  You can download it from iTunes and Google Play – and it’s my favorite flavor – free!
  • You can also download a WWII Memorial app for iTunes and Google Play.
  • You can access more information from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund app, available on iTunes and Google Play.
  • You can learn more about the historic aircraft and space artifacts on display in the Air and Space Museum with the COPILOT mobile site, available at copilot.si.edu.
  • The National Gallery of Art has an awesome app available for iTunes and Google Play.
  • There are a few great apps out there for Gettysburg.  Check out the battle app from NeoTreks on iTunes and Google Play, and the Lincoln 1863 app on iTunes .
  • The Arlington National Cemetery Explorer app is available on iTunes and Google Play.
  • Check out the National Archives' highlight of the day on their app, available on iTunes and Google Play
  • Check out the National Zoo app on iTunes and Google Play (if you want to spend $1.99).
  • The Library of Congress has a tour app at on iTunes.
  • You can listen to an audio tour of the memorial from the Pentagon Memorial website.