Day 1: We are off to our nation's capital.

You know those days when everything just seems to go right? Well today was one of those days. Our bus and driver arrived at school at 4:45 for our 5:30 load time....that's a great sign to us. His name is "Mr." Robert and he has been amazing at getting us efficiently to our destinations.

We had a lovely picnic lunch at a rest area in Virginia. A big "thank you" to Hildy and Henry's grandmother who made our entire group homemade cookies for our journey! Once we got to D.C., we made a quick stop at the National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. We also got to see the Magna Carta. We will study about this document later in the year.

Robert then whisked us over the International Spy Museum for a tour. Did you know that D.C. has more spies than any other city in the world? And that one of our students has the same strength as James Bond? Or that Mrs. Starnes would be an amazing code breaker? We all had a good time learning about the craft of espionage. Afterwards we headed to Union Station for a food court dinner before our evening tour of the monuments. Tonight we visited the Washington Monument, WWII, Vietnam, Lincoln and Korean Memorials. Our kids did a great job of being respectful and learning about these historical sites.

We are all checked into our rooms now. Overall it was a perfectly, perfect day. Thank you for all your prayers for our group. God has blessed our trip and we are thankful.

Sleepy kids head out on a big adventure!

Our wonderful bus driver Robert! He has been driving groups to D.C. for 32 years!

Our double-decker bus. It's really fun to all be together as we travel.

Thank you Sage for packing our picnic. It was a really nice lunch!

Ready to learn all about spies....

We begin with a short film about being a spy.

Miss Cutshaw, Mrs. Fierley and Mrs. Starnes :)

Dinner at Union Station

The architecture is so beautiful.

Mrs. Mynatt giving instructions on our evening monument tour.

Thank you to our chaperones for setting up lunch.

I always wanted to be a spy. :)

WWII Memorial

WWII Memorial

Learning in action.

Most respectful group at the monuments tonight. So proud of our students.

Taking a little break before continuing to the Vietnam Memorial.

The Lincoln Memorial.

We wrapped up the memorials at the Korean. It is best seen at night. Matthew Murray said as we walked back to the bus, "this one was my favorite, Mrs. Mynatt." I have to agree.

Looking forward to a fun day tomorrow seeing the Smithsonian's (American and Natural History). We will also visit the zoo and see Mary Poppins in the evening. We start our day at Arlington. All is quiet in the hotel....pretty sure our bunch is sound asleep....

Goodnight from D.C.