Good first day on the East Coast!

We were pretty exhausted with our red-eye flight, but everyone still managed to make it through the first day of our East Coast Trip.  We saw Arlington National Cemetery, Ford’s Theatre, the North Lawn of the White House, the Smithsonian Museum of American History, President Obama drive past us (well, I doubt he was actually driving, but you get the idea), the Iwo Jima Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, Korean War Memorial, and finished up with the Lincoln Memorial.  Whew!  That was a full day.

 

A couple things I spoke to the kids about today:

-       Chewing gum.  There are so many places that we go to that don’t allow it that we just say, “No gum while on tour” to make it easier on everyone.  We’ve had most every student doing a great job with this, but we’ve had a couple kids “forget.”

-       Cell phones.  I tried to make it crystal clear prior to departure that cell phone use is limited to “transit time” in between major cities and in the hotel in the evening and morning.  Had a couple kids with them out at lunch today.

-       Sliding down the banister at the Lincoln Memorial.  Banisters are for gripping as you descend stairs, not for use as an express lane.  All railings and banisters are off-limits for sliding.  I didn’t specifically mention that prior to the tour, but didn’t think I needed to.

-       Name badges.  Thankfully, only one student dropped his name badge on the ground, and thankfully a wonderful student from our group turned it into me.  We’ve also had just a couple left accidentally on the coach.  Everyone else has been very conscientious, but these are really important to keep on the entire tour.

 

A couple things we’ll remind about tomorrow (and you could help us with):

-       We’re not forcing the kids to drink water at meals, so many of them are gravitating to soda.  It was warm and humid today, and the temperature is supposed to go up tomorrow.  Headaches are often the result of dehydration, and Coke at every meal is just going to make things worse (we even had some early-morning cola drinkers at breakfast!!).  We’ll keep reminding about eating and drinking healthy, and hope you can too.

-       Kids by and large have been very polite and considerate to those around us.  We got big kudos from the flight crew last night and we’re hoping to keep up the good work.

-       Stay to the right, stay to the right!  If you text this to your child, they’ll know exactly what you mean.  Sometimes when we walk in a group of 42, we tend to think we own the sidewalk.  We need to continue to be mindful of those who are also enjoying our nation’s treasures.

 

Thanks for your help in continuing to reinforce positive behaviors and positive attitudes.  Hope you’re enjoying the updates and photos!  I will try to do the same again tomorrow!

 

RVI