DCS Senior Trip — Day 2
Today was a beautiful day in our nation’s capital and the DCS Class of 2009 had a jam-packed day. We started the morning touring the Museum of American History, Ford Theater and then the Holocaust Museum. We then traveled to Arlington Cemetery where we saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Lee Mansion and the Kennedy Graves. After that we hustled back to the mall and took in the Lincoln, Vietnam and Korean memorials. By 6:30, we were at the stadium to watch the Nationals play the Pirates. I was able to enjoy a private dinner with Megan who was celebrating her 18th birthday at a restaurant that had a veranda overlooking center field. The evening was beautiful and she even had her picture taken with one of the National mascots. Then we hustled back to the hotel and let the kids go swimming for about 90 minutes to burn off any excess energy.
Tonight will be a short one as we have to get up at 5:30 to get ready for our early a.m. tour at the White House. We won’t get back until nearly 11:00 tomorrow night. Tired kids make for happy chaperones! 
Here are some pics of our day…
Waiting for the lecture to begin at Ford Theater.
Two of our class officers posed with two of the soldiers who were putting 250,000 flags on the graves at Arlington Cemetery for Memorial Day. Several of our students stopped soldiers throughout the cemetery and thanked them for serving our country.
At the Vietnam War Memorial, I found the name of my cousin, Richard F. (Dickie) Waterfield who was killed at the age of 22 shortly after arriving in Vietnam. If memory serves me correctly, I believe my grandmother told me that he was killed by “friendly fire.” Though I was only eight years old, I remember the last time I saw him at a family reunion we had at a lake where we owned a lot in Missouri. The war memorials reminded me again that the cost of our freedom is high for wars that we often did not ask to fight, wars that involved principle, wars that were caused by egomaniacs, wars that were waged to protect innocents and wars that to do this day do not make sense. But each of them were fought with young men and women who had the courage to put duty above personal agendas and did what they were asked to do and we should all be grateful.
My very gifted photographer daughter, Megan, took this picture of Brandon Rosado as he read the names on the memorial wall.
Megan and I enjoyed her birthday dinner at the National’s stadium on a veranda and she even got to meet “George”!
A nice way to celebrate Meg’s 18th.
We had our own section with a bird’s eye view of all the action.
And a good time was had by all.
If you’d like to see more photos from our trip, visit my Facebook page and check out the Senior Trip Album.
