Sunday, April 26

Norfolk Naval Station, Jamestown, Williamsburg.

Monday, April 27

Williamsburg.

Tuesday, April 28

The Whitehouse, Planet Hollywood, Washington Monument, Holocaust Museum, Congresswoman Linda Smith (dinner at Bullfeathers and an evening Capitol tour).

Wednesday, April 29

The Bureau of Printing and Engraving, Vietnam Veterans' Memorial, The Smithsonian (Natural History and American History), Family Research Council, The Dance Theatre of Harlem at Kennedy Center.

Thursday, April 30

Gettysburg.

Friday, May 1

Mt. Vernon, US Naval Observatory.

Saturday, May 2

The Arlington Cemetary, National Cathedral, leave DC.

(Greg) We are beginning a six week family adventure that will take us through some of our nation’s history around Washington, D.C. and on through France and Portugal. The adventure began with our flight from Seattle to Norfolk where we met up with our private guide, Jan Johnson, and our driver for the week, Mark Cardinal.
(Greg) A visit to the Norfolk Naval Yards and the historic triangle of Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown began our trip. The rich history and extraordinary events are always more amazing in real life.
(Devin) Today on Sunday, April 26, 1998 we went to see the U.S.S. George Washington aircraft carrier. We had a special tour were we could see all of the missiles and all of the bombs. There were no aircraft on board because they unload before the ship docks. Farther down the docks we got to also see submarines, and a bunch of frigates and missile cruisers.
(Devin) Later we went to Jamestown were we watched a short movie about the first settlers in Jamestown. The town was full of people dressed up in the style of clothes that they wore back then the early 1600’s. There were real long houses that the Indians would live in and a fort where the English colonists would stay so they could defend themselves. The most amazing part of the colony were the exact replicas of the ships they used to cross the Atlantic ocean. The smallest ship was named Discovery, and it was only 47 feet long, but more that 25 men lived on it for the long 4 ½ months of the journey. One reason Jamestown survived was their superior weapons, like the musket we saw fired by one of the soldiers.
(Devin) This evening, we started our tour of colonial Williamsburg. This was the capital of Virginia after Jamestown. This is where Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Patrick Henry and many other famous people began the process of the American Revolution. They were all members of the House of Burgess, where they could debate the laws, but they were really controlled by the English Governor. That Governor lived in a big brick mansion, but Patrick Henry lived there later when he was the first colonial governor of Virginia. We will go back tomorrow to see more.
(Whitney) Today on our tour of the nuclear carrier called the U.S.S. George Washington, I got to pretend that I was steering the ship in the room where the captain and the navigator sit during the daytime.
(Whitney) When we went to Colonial Jamestown today we got to see the fort. In one of the houses in the fort, there was a trunk with colonial clothes in it. I put the skirt and bonnet on and my mom thought I looked just like a colonial girl, except for the shirt and jewelry that I had on.
(Whitney) When we were in the Indian village part of Colonial Jamestown, there was a woman dressed up like an Indian that was making rope out of two pieces of plant. We stopped by where she was sitting, and she showed me how to make rope. It was amazing because it was so easy. She told us that to make one Indian Longhouse it would take 2 miles of this string and rope.Later, in the afternoon, we visited a town called Colonial Williamsburg. It was a lot of fun because everybody who worked there was dressed up like they lived in the late 1700’s. In the middle of a town common area, there was a couple of old stocks. Stocks are the things that the people used back in those days for punishment. You put your head and hands through some holes, and then they locked you in. You would be left there to be humiliated in front of all your neighbors. Then the people hoped you wouldn’t do whatever you did wrong again.

(Devin) Today we went to colonial Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia in the early 1700’s. This was where George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry first started talking about Independence from England. The capital building was called the House of Burgess. At the courthouse we learned that all the people that were blamed for crimes waited in a certain jail that was just for holding people after they were tried. There were no term sentences for crime, you were either whipped, hanged, or fined.
(Whitney) The weather turned out nice at the end of the day but we started out with some light rain; this gave mom a great excuse to buy a souvenir umbrella.
(Whitney) There was a bunch of old fashioned stores in Colonial Williamsburg. There were clothing stores, hat stores, shoe stores, and there was also an apothecary. An apothecary would be called a pharmacy today. In colonial times they did not have vaccines, they scraped live vaccine from sick peoples sores into open cuts of well people. Many people died from this process, we take for granted how fortunate we are. The grossest things they had were leeches. They thought the body was like a machine, when it had a fever it had too much pressure. They would let out some of the fluid by bleeding. They put the leeches on the person’s body and let them suck blood out of the person. Yech!!!
My favorite store was the bakery. They had fresh pastries and cookies. I got to have a small loaf of the freshest bread in the store. It was so fresh and good that I got flour all over my face. This evening we drove 3 hours to Washington D.C.

(Whitney) Our hotel is located right in the heart of Washington D.C. We are staying at the Grand Hyatt. It is so nice they even have a place called the Regency located on the top floor. The Regency is a place where only people with certain cards can go to relax and have an enjoying quick meal. To get to the Regency you stick your special card into a slot in the elevator and it’s like a machine pushes the button for the twelfth floor for you. In the middle of the hotel there is a big American flag hanging from the ceiling. The flag is so big and heavy that it droops down in the middle. It is really nice because right when you walk in the front door of the hotel you see this humungous American flag right in the middle of the lobby. I think that symbolizes how patriotic Americans are to their country and their flag.
(Whitney) In the morning we went on a tour of the White House. I had never been on a tour of the White House. My mom and dad have been to the White House many times before and they said that this tour was the best tour that they had ever been on. I thought it was great too. When we were through with the tour, we went outside to go to the White House souvenir center. On our way there Devin and I got to stand on the fence of the White House.
(Devin) One of the excursions today was going to the White House. One of the secret service members gave us a special tour. The tour included things that I have never seen before, The agent knew all about the paintings and all of the furniture. The security was amazing, I always like going to the white house with my dad because we talk about how people have tried to kill the president and how they make it so they can not. They usually do this with all of the new high-tech that comes.
(Greg) What a special treat this time through the Whitehouse. With special arrangements for a congressional tour, we got to see parts of the residence we had bypassed on previous tours. The guide knew about every painting, every stick of furniture and he related several anecdotes for every room. It is amazing to realize how many events in history have been crammed into the last 190 years. It was especially meaningful to make the jump from the capitals of Jamestown and Williamsburg as some of the leaders from those areas made history here as well.
(Whitney) After the White House we went to lunch at Planet Hollywood. It was so cool. They had handprints in the wall of movie stars and other famous people. My hands fit perfectly in the prints of Whitney Houston. There were props from gobs of movies all over the restaurant. It was fun to remember all those movies, and the food was good too.
(Devin) The Washington Monument looks smaller than it really is. We learned that it is being renovated until the year 2000. I always like learning the funny interesting points about historical monuments. The point about the Washington Monument is that it is made with two shades of rock. The reason for this is there was a war that started while they were in the middle of building it. They had to stop the construction because they needed the material for the war. They started again after the war but the rock had a different shade than before.
(Greg) The most moving part of the day was definitely the Holocaust Museum. We all asked each other what left the deepest impression on each of us. It seems impossible to limit the answer to any one thing, because so many extreme events happened in so many places to so many people with so many lessons for all of mankind for all time. However, my greatest disgust goes back to the early stages of Hitler’s rise before the camps, before the Jewish persecutions, before he was even the Chancellor of Germany.
(Greg) Germany was a country beset by economic depression like the rest of the world. Add to that stress, the loss of a World War and the blame and burden laid on the country by the Versailles treaty, and you have a people desperate for a leader with confidence and answers. So many leaders were unsure in such tenuous times, but Hitler boisterously espoused his self-righteous version of the solution. As in so many areas of the world, and even our own every day lives, people gravitate to those that sound loud and confident. Many times those boistrous leaders sound so confident of their own opinions, only because they will not consider or tolerate anyone else’s opinions. We need to insist on questioning all leaders, especially when we are the most afraid and have the fewest answers.
(Greg) If our spirits are troubled by a concept, if ideas violate common sense or basic principles, and especially if a leader does not take input from multiple credible sources, we need to stand firm and not yield blindly. The holocaust was doomed to occur way before the first Nazi brownshirt smashed a Jewish store window, because everyday citizens would not take a stand. Given the same cumulative pressures on top of our economic depression, we might easily have turned our eyes from the same injustices. This lack of character is occurring all over the world, in our businesses and in our neighborhoods every day. There are way too many sheep, and not enough people taking leadership responsibility.
(Greg) The few who risked their lives to help the persecuted during the holocaust frequently remarked, "we only did what everyone else should have done." No heroics, no pride, just basic responsibility. The theme of the Holocaust museum is "Let us never forget!". There will always be Hitler-type personalities among us; how can we "never forget" when we still blame the monster Adolf Hitler, instead of facing the monster of irresponsibility in all of us.
(Devin) Later that night we had dinner with Linda Smith, a congresswoman from Washington State. It was very interesting to hear all of her political stories. For a special treat she took us on a private night tour through the Capitol Building. Nobody was in the building, so we got to stand on the floor of the House of Representatives. The most fun part of the tour was lying on the floor of the dome and looking up at the beautiful art work on the ceiling. Linda told us that the painter got mad at his employers right before he finished the work. She said that he had painted his face somewhere in the painting. She dared us to find it, I was laying on the floor at the time looking straight at it not knowing it was there. She said I was the only student she had ever been with that had found it.

(Devin) This morning we went to the Treasury Department. In the front entry hall they had a glass case that had sheets of 10-dollar bills. The total amount of money in the case was one million dollars. In the building there is a catwalk above all of the machinery so you can see what is going on. You can look down and see big money rolls. I am amazed that humans work with the money instead of machines because I would think someone would try and steal it. The security was very tight so that made me fell a little better.
(Whitney) Today we went to the Vietnam memorial wall. It was a lot of fun to see it in real life instead of seeing it in a picture. It was sad knowing that all of those people died fighting for another country's freedom from communism. A fun thing to do at the Vietnam memorial is to take a piece of paper and rub names off of the wall on to the paper. I did this and got about six names. One of the workers there told me that it would take ten more of the same size walls as the Vietnam memorial to have enough room for all of the people that died in the Civil War.
(Devin) Today we went to see the Vietnam Memorial. It was interesting to see all of the names up close and have the first hand experience. Many people were there paying there respects and visiting their loved ones. One of the things I found fun to do was copy names on to paper. I liked to find letters that were in my name and copy them all in a line and then pretend like I found someone that had my exact name. Right by the wall was a statute that paid respect to all of the soldiers, living and dead. The statute consists of three men glancing at the wall looking at all of their dead friends. Each person is a different nationally. White, Black, and Hispanic. I thought this was cool because it paid respect to all of the people that fought.
(Whitney) After the Vietnam memorial we went to the Museum of Natural History. The Museum of Natural History is part of the Smithsonian Museum. There are many different exhibits in the Museum of Natural History but we went to the part with the gemstones and jewels. In this exhibit they have the "Hope Diamond" on display. It was so pretty. They had it on a rotating pole covered in fabric. They had the diamond on the upper part that slanted downward, and the back of the necklace draped down the back of the display.

(Whitney) Our two-hour private tour of Gettysburg was a lot of fun. Our private guide took us all around the battlefield. We got to see a lot of the sights of the major battles of Gettysburg. The battle that was most interesting to me was the battle of the first day when General Reynolds planned to hold off the South for most of the day.  (North Carolina boys). He forced the South to commit to a battle before the Southern General, Lee, knew what was happening. Reynolds needed to stall until the Union General, Meade, could join him with the rest of the 90,000 troops. Reynolds planned to end the day with an orderly retreat to high ground were he would join General Meade. That would leave the North in a superior position as they started day 2. Even though Reynolds was shot and killed only 30 minutes after the battle started, and the stronger South forced a disorderly retreat, Reynolds’ plan worked. The North was in the better position at the end of day 1, and the South was now committed to a battle they did not want.
(Devin) Today we went to the town of Gettysburg. I thought it was very interesting seeing the actual battlefields of the civil war that we talk so much about in class. I think the most interesting part about the battle of Gettysburg is Little Round Top. This was a very important part of the battle because for the North to win, they had to keep the hill. (General Warren). The North’s position was shaped like a fishhook, the long end was around Little Round Top. If the south broke through the end of the line they could flank the rear of the whole line. Joshua Chamberlain was a colonel for the union and was positioned at Little Round Top. He was told to hold that position at all costs. The South concentrated most of their forces on the two sides. During the battle he suffered heavy losses. Chamberlain was told that the North needed more time to get reinforcements to him. His men were very successful in holding back many attacks, but they eventually ran out of bullets. Chamberlain ordered a bayonet charge so he could buy more time. His men all knew that many of them would die in this charge but they knew it had to be done. They fixed their bayonets and on command charged. In that charge 2/3 of Chamberlain’s men died. The south retreated because of the oncoming rampage. Chamberlain had prevailed with his charge with buying more time. The now new left flank was secure. Chamberlain was responsible for holding the Northern intact by the end of day two of the three-day battle. This strong resistance forced General Lee to change strategy and order an attack up the middle on day three that killed over 8,000 Confederate soldiers.

(Devin) We started our day with a visit to Mount Vernon. George Washington’s house was big and had a lot of rooms. One thing I thought was funny was seeing how high the beds were since the people back then were very short. I thought it was interesting that George Washington had foresight about slavery and tobacco. Tobacco was the main crop of southern colonial America, but George Washington knew it had many problems and gradually shifted his farms to wheat. He also knew that slavery was wrong. He taught his slaves different trades, educated their children and let them go free with money to help them get started in the world.
(Whitney) Today we went to Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon was the home of our first president, George Washington. One thing I found interesting was that the house was made of wood that looked like stone. The way they did this was they took the wood and primed it. Then they painted it, but while the paint was still wet they put fine sand in it to give it that stone look. This process was called rustication. The back of Mount Vernon had an incredible view overlooking the Potomac River. After we went to the house, we went to look at Washington’s grave. Washington’s grave had a big eagle on top of it. George Washington was a farmer, so we went down to a place where people were planting corn. Down there we saw a lady who showed us how to make corn cakes. By the lady they had a place where you could grind corn. Devin did the smashing part and I did the sifting part.
(Devin) Later that evening we visited the Naval Observatory. The Vice President’s home is on the same grounds as all the telescope domes. The brother-in-law of our teacher, Mary Ellen, is an atomic physicist there. We were allowed to look through the telescope. One thing that I found out there was that one of their telescopes discovered the two moons of Mars in 1877. Our guide specialized in laser atomic clocks. He showed us his lab area where he had a huge table that had lenses and prisms and lasers on it. The lasers would collect atoms and put them into a chamber where you could study the beats of atoms. The beats would tell us exactly how long a second was. That way they could build a master clock.
(Whitney) We also went to the Naval Observatory. At the Naval Observatory they had atomic clocks. Our guide was Mary Ellen’s brother in-law. The security was really cool with all the Secret Service guys all over. We had a picnic on the grounds close to where Al Gore’s helicopter lands.