School trips to D.C.

My niece, the aforementioned (in another thread) new National Honor Society inductee (still so proud), is taking a school trip to D.C. this Summer. (band related, I believe)

I was just wondering if any members here have taken a school-related trip to D.C. before, and what all it usually entails.

Do the students get to pick any of their sight-seeing destinations, or is it all pre-arranged?

Are there any pre-cautions I need to warn her about?

Lay it on me.

Also, think of any questions I'm missing.

 

Thank you, @snowy
That's a huge relief.

Appreciate it.

 

Some very general thoughts based on limited experiences:


A schedule/itenerary is a must. There is so much to see in DC it's easy to be overwhelmed, seriously overwhelmed.

The Mall is huge. The tourist buses might seem corny, esp to younger folks, but they save you A LOT of walking. Don't get caught short on cash. The vendors rape tourists on food & drink prices.

I went to Arlington Cemetary very late in the afternoon, basically at "closing" time. I got to see the changing of the guard, and the lowering and folding of the flag. Very impressive.

 

Certainly.

I should've noted that my brief (not my choice, I love visiting DC) experiences had nothing to do with school trips.

 

I stood outside of the Supreme Court building with my mouth hanging open.

Literally.

 

My class went on a weeklong trip in 8th grade.

We took a charter bus down there, stopped in Gettysburg for the day. Once we got to DC, we stayed in a hotel, and all our sightseeing was prearranged. We did some of the Smithsonians, a lot of monuments, the Spy Museum (which was incredible), Arlington and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and a few other things. Since it was a catholic school, we did a lot of the churches and cathedrals too. Everything was chaperoned, and we were driven around in the charter bus the whole time. Most of our meals were taken care of when we ate as groups. There were a few times where we were given some freedom, like when we went to a mall and got to walk around. In the museums and stuff, we were broken down into smaller groups and had to stay in those groups for accountability. In the hotels, there was a guard in the hallway to make sure we weren't sneaking off.

Since she's in high school, she'll probably get more freedom than our 8th grade selves did, but it will still be pretty heavily pre-arranged.

 

I agree most of the itinerary will likely be pre-planned and focused on the Smithsonian Museums on the National Mall, possibly a White House Tour (more limited these days and requires advance reservations made through your Congressional office), Capitol tour (the relatively new underground Capitol Visitors Center is very cool).

If she is an app nerd, get the National Park Service app for the National Mall.

If they will be there in late June or early July, the Folk Life Festival on the Mall is great....ethnic music and food all day.

If they are going in mid-late July and looking for off-beat activities at night, the Capital Fringe Festival is great! Lots of music and performance artists at various locations. Go in a group!

Any free time for shopping (Georgetown, etc.) always go in a group!

DC is a safe city but basic precautions are common sense.

 

I was in DC shortly after Holocaust Museum opened (in fact, I think that it was the opening weekend). I didn't have enough free time to go, and there was four day wait for tickets. Staying an extra day or two would've meant using vacation time and paying for lodging and meals. Without my wife being there. Which would not have gone over well with her. Despite her claims to the contrary (no, my wife isn't a shrew, it was just one of those married folks things).

 

I know couples living together who don't understand some things about being married.

My wife & I are connected in ways that are to hard to explain to those who don't have those connections.

Anyway, I'm threadjacking here. Over & out.

 

The last time I was in the EEOB (not the West Wing), I was there for a briefing in the Indian Treaty Room. It was a hot summer day, late in the afternoon, the room was stuffy and I nodded off and missed most of the briefing.
--- merged: Apr 4, 2014 at 5:12 PM ---
The last time I was on the White House grounds (before the above) was for the annual Easter Egg Roll in 1999. A fight over one of the wooden eggs broke out between two mothers, and the Easter Bunny (Tipper Gore) got caught in the crossfire.

 

8th Grade trips to D.C. are a "thing" in Ohio. Every school in the area I grew up in went to D.C. on an 8th grade trip, along with a small group of teachers, a handful of parents, and organized tour guides. Depending on the size of the 8th grade class, we were divided into groups small enough to fit on one of those fancy pants tour buses, assigned a real tour guide as well as both teacher and parent chaperones, and went off the see the major sights of the city as pre-determined by our tour guides. Those guys were awesome.

My class did not get to go to the White House, for some reason unknown to us. We did see all the major monuments, a few museums, including the Holocaust museum. While it might be targeted for an older demographic, it still brought a handful of students to tears, and no one joked around. I believe we'd had a unit on the Holocaust earlier in the year or late the year before (?), and having that background helped.

We were housed in dorms (6 to a room, 1 parent or teacher in each room), and roommates were determined before the trip.

It was, overall, a great experience, and very well organized.

 

I think 8th grade trips to DC are a thing, especially on the east coast but here, too. I went in grade 8 (from Connecticut) and 23 and 32 years later respectively, my kids had the opportunity to go from here (Chicago area). It was all-pre-planned and uber-chaperoned. I didn't get to do a fraction of what I wanted, but it did give me an appreciation of the country's capital and a strong interest in returning.

I don't mean this offensively but I have no desire to see the contents of the Holocaust Museum. I was traumatized by being forced in grade 7 to view news film footage of skin lamps, emaciated bodies being bulldozed into mass graves, and the poor souls who lived through it all being liberated and so much more. My parents were children during WW II so my generation got a faceful of it--and then we had our own war--Vietnam. I was a sensitive kid and I still have nightmares about the reality of the Holocaust. I'm thoroughly educated to the point that my psyche can handle, having read Elie Wiesel, Anne Frank and many others and watch all kinds of films, two of the most heartbreaking being, "Playing For Time" and "Sophie's Choice".
I'm conflicted whether children under the age of say, 16, should get a full dose of the Holocaust visually. I think it should decided be on a kid by kid basis and since there is so much else to see in a short span of time in D.C., I wouldn't put it on a band trip itinerary.

 

I get it.

We had a family reunion at the Holocaust Museum 15 years ago when an exhibit on the Kovno Ghetto (Lithuania) opened. My mother's side was from Lithuania and amonng the 50+ attendees was a survivor of the Kovno Ghetto who spoke to the group. Being local, I was fortunate to help set up the private tour at the museum.

A rabbi who attended wrote about it:

It was an emotional and educational experience to say the least.

/ threadjack