Senior Trip to Washington D.C. – Day 6

Washington D.C. March 10, 2023

It is Senior Trip time at Great Hearts where seniors throughout our academies have the opportunity to visit our nation’s capital and see the historical places and context for so many of their discussions regarding human nature, freedom, liberty, justice, and many other ideals and virtues.

Follow one senior, Jacob Rickey, as he gives us a daily peak at some of the amazing sites they will experience this week, through his eyes and in his own words. Catch up with the trip by reading previous articles before you proceed with today’s final entry:

Friday, March 10th
Written by Jacob Rickey, Great Hearts Senior

We woke up this morning and our roommates cooked some eggs that we bought and used some of the food from the hotel to make some breakfast sandwiches, which were really good [Editor’s Note: They will be glad they learned this skill next year when they need to make a quick breakfast in their dorm rooms]. I think it’s safe to say that I have really enjoyed the food on this trip!

We went to the metro station and rode to Ford’s Theatre where we got to walk through and see where Abraham Lincoln was shot [Editor’s Note: The theater opened in August of 1863 and is well known for being the site where President Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865. John Wilkes Booth entered the theater box where Lincoln and his wife were watching a performance of Our American Cousin and shot Lincoln in the head. Lincoln died the next morning from the fatal wound]. The theater was amazing because they had restored the whole building and we got to see them working on the lighting to get ready for a play that was in production there, which was also very cool to see.

After leaving the theater, we had some free time to choose an activity and my group went to the National Archives where we got to see the Constitution of the United States, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and other founding documents which was a fun experience and nice to just take in. We were not allowed to take photos because they wanted to preserve the documents.

After lunch we headed to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. It was raining, so I wasn’t able to get any photos of the exterior of the building, but like all of the architecture in Washington D.C., it was impressive. The museum was very interesting because of the way it was set up. It was a self-guided tour but most of the rooms sort of lead you through a chronological timeline of Hitler’s rise to power, through the war, and the concentration camps. The Holocaust exhibit has three floors and is filled with historical artifacts, photographs, and film footage. It was a very impactful experience.

Some of us decided to return to the National Museum of Natural History because there is so much to see there and we had to rush through it the first time we went. We still didn’t see all of the exhibits they have. After that, everyone headed back to the hotel and grabbed some dinner along the way, and we all ate in the hotel lobby together.

Tomorrow, we will be taking a tour of George Washington’s Mount Vernon before packing up and heading to the airport for our flight home. It has really been a fun trip. The best thing has been hanging out with friends that I have grown up with at school and navigating around a new place together. It has been nice to have a little bit of freedom to choose what we want to see and do with our friends. This has been a very memorable time that I will not forget anytime soon.

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