I'm loving reading about your trip! I'm doing this trip next May, and the more I read, the better it sounds! Do you know if the Holocaust museum tickets is something they do for every trip? Because I absolutely, positively want to do that.
I'm not sure if it's an always thing to get the Holocaust Museum tix, but it sounded like something they were going to try, and almost all of us on our tour (20) took advantage of it. Hopefully they'll continue it next year if they get good response this season.
Sorry it's been awhile since I posted - after Monticello, I had trouble getting the wifi on the coach to work - I was connected, but it wasn't going to the Internet. Maria said she'd had problems, too, but we may have been the only ones trying to log on. Maybe the heat (OMG, the heat
) overheated whatever "hot spot" (no pun intended) they had on the coach. In any case, I wasn't going to pay for the hotel wifi in our room, and was too tired to hangout in the lobby (as lovely as it was) at the end of the day to post.
Monticello was great - I've been there before, but this time we got to do the "behind the scenes" tour in addition to the regular tour - the only problem was that there was some miscommunication with the docents, and we ended up waiting outside on a very warm porch for 30-45 minutes and missed doing some other things. But I did like seeing more of the house, and especially being in the beautiful cupola at the top of the house. It was a long ride to and from Monticello, but Maria and Trish kept us occupied with games, etc. I think that night the "senior" adventurers got to have a nice dinner together at the Mayflower on Disney while the "junior" adventurers had a meal together and watched a movie - that was fun.
The next day was the 4th, and we were scheduled to go to Gettysburg. There is a new (since I was there in 1987) visitor's center that had a fabulous museum section (which we didn't really have enough time for) as well as a movie and amazing diorama which depicts the 3-day battle - very moving experience, as odd as that sounds. After the diorama, we went to the Soldiers' Cemetery area, where Greg pointed out the many memorials, and filled us in on more history. On the bus, Trish had helped us dissect and understand the significance of the Gettysburg Address, which really made the experience more meaningful for me. I had talked with Maria and Greg before our visit about visiting my grandparents' gravesite there (my paternal grandfather, who died before I was born, was a WWI veteran); my grandmother lived with my family for 20 years while I was growing up. They were very accommodating, and Greg made sure that we practically walked right by my grandparents' gravesite on our way to lunch at Dobbins House. It was a very special thing to me to be able to do that with my kids, who never met either of them.
After lunch, we picked up a battlefield guide, whose name I believe was Ed. This was another highlight of the trip for me - Fred drove the coach around to various places and Ed would narrate and tell us about the battles. We'd jump off at certain points and Ed would illustrate for us what happened at that particular point in the battle and it really brought the history to life; here we were, imagining ourselves to be Confederate soldiers, standing shoulder to shoulder, marching towards the Union Army, who we could see right across the field in front of us. Awesome!
On our return to Washington and the Mayflower, we made arrangements to meet in the lobby to walk to see the fireworks. Trish and Maria led us right down the street about .7 miles (with the throngs of people doing the same thing we were), and we plopped down on the Red Cross building lawn and had a great view of the fireworks over the top of the DAR building across the street. It may not have been the "special viewing platform" that one of our group had been promised by the
ABD Vacationistas, but it was pretty painless and a great experience.
Our last full day was spent stopping for a quick photo-op at the White House, then travelling the short distance to Mount Vernon, which is another lovely spot filled with much historical significance and information about just how interesting George Washington was as a person. On the way back, we stopped at the Lincoln Memorial for some quick photos, then we were dropped off at a location of our choice; we picked the Natural History Museum and enjoyed the gemstones and minerals until our feet just couldn't take anymore, and we went back to the hotel for the fun and bittersweet farewell dinner - it was hard to believe the week was over already.
Some general notes, observations, and opinions - there was never enough time available to spend at some of the major sites (Monticello, Gettysburg, etc.) to feel like I had thoroughly experienced them. HOWEVER, there was no way we could have seen as much as we did if we hadn't kept to the schedule laid out for us. I now feel like I have the lay of the land and we could return on our own and be able to get around and pick which things we'd like to do more of. And I definitely think our kids got a sense of what we wanted them to experience; they have both offered unsolicited thanks for bringing them on this trip, and that is priceless!
I do recommend tagging some extra time onto your trip if you're able. We did the two days ahead in Philly offered at extra cost and thoroughly enjoyed our day in Harrisburg and Hershey, as well as a great afternoon at The Franklin Institute before our welcome dinner. Also, with the time change for us, it was nice to get acclimated before we had "early" mornings to commit to. We stayed at the Mayflower on our own two extra nights - we were lucky they fell on a Friday and Saturday, as they have reasonable weekend rates, but they went up significantly during the week, so we (reluctantly) checked out Sunday and came down to Williamsburg and the Great Wolf Lodge - we did Williamsburg this afternoon and it was fabulous - I just wish we would have gotten an earlier start. We used our extra days in DC to do the Air and Space Museum, and "made" the boys spend a little time in the National Gallery of Art before we rode the Metro to the Marine Barracks for the Evening Parade. We also took in a special exhibit "Art of the Video Game" at the Portrait Gallery and drove out to Chantilly to meet up with our niece's husband for dinner and a quick run through of the Udvar-Hazy museum at Dulles (fabulous and different than Air and Space on the Mall). The extra time allowed us to squeeze in a couple more things - the "afternoons on your own" are limited and we were often pretty wiped out, but one of the amazing things about the Smithsonian venues is that they're all free - if you only get there for an hour, no big deal, you can come back another time.
We did things that we wouldn't have done on our own, like kayaking; I hope it encourages us to be more adventuresome on future trips. It showed me how much a guide or guides can enhance your experience over trying to wander around on your own; it's great to explore on your own, but we would have lost the kids' interest pretty quickly and I would not have gotten as much out of the trip myself, either.
After all my concerns about safety, I felt very comfortable navigating for ourselves and I feel like a bit of a DC subway expert now! We used it quite a bit, due to the heat; I would have preferred to walk more above ground and see the sights, but it was a welcome respite from the burning sidewalks, especially when we were tired at the end of the day.
So, I'm starting to wind down myself now, and DH and the DSs will be back from the water park soon. This trip has been pretty much all I wanted and expected it to be, and more.
The only thing I would change is the weather - I know it sounds like I whine about it a lot, but it definitely affected how much and what we felt like doing - I heard it set a new record for longest consecutive days above 95 degrees. My oldest DS has vowed he will never come back here in summer again.
That's all I can think of right now; feel free to ask any specific questions you might have and I'll try to answer them in a timely fashion (but be warned I'm going on an Alaska
DCL in mid-August with my DSis and her family and will be lurking on the DCL forum a lot in the near future - DSis tried to get me to work on cruise planning before this trip but I just couldn't do both at once, so I will be back at it as soon as I get home!).
I'm excited for those of you who are planning your future ABD trips! Good luck and have a wonderful time!
