7th & 8th Grades go to
Washington D.C.!

The Lincoln Memorial

By Anthony C.

Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by an actor, John Booth, in 1865. He was shot in the back of the head at Ford's Theater. The memorial, Lincoln Statue, is dedicated to him because he helped stop slavery when he was President during the civil war.

The building that holds the memorial is 189 feet long and 118 feet wide. It's located in Washington D.C. at the edge of the National Mall. The memorial was dedicated to Lincoln in 1922. They carved the names of 48 states on the top of the wall because at the time the memorial was dedicated there were only 48 states admitted to the union.

The building amazingly resembles The Parthenon which is the temple of Athena, the goddess of war. The building has 36 Doric columns. There are 36 because when the building was being built there were only 36 states.

The statue of Lincoln is made of granite even though it looks like marble. The statue is 19ft tall. They made the statue so tall because Lincoln was the tallest president. Lincoln was a great President. I chose this memorial because he is my favorite President.

Mount Vernon

By Anthony J.

Mount Vernon was the home of George Washington, the father of our country.

Mount Vernon is 500-acres (202-hectares) and the mansion weighed 15,000 pounds.

By 1754, Mount Vernon consisted of 2,126 acres (860 hectares), a few out buildings, and a wooden cottage.

The cottage consisted of four small rooms and a central hall on the first floor. It is the present houses core.

Writing from Mount Vernon of Dec. 11, 1793, Washington described the area with this speech:  No estate in United America is more pleasantly situated than this It lies on high, dry and healthy Country 300 miles by water from the Sea...on one of the finest rivers in the world... situated in a latitude between the extremes of heat and cold...

In the early 1770's, an addition was made to the south end of the house for the library and the master bedroom suite above.

In Mount Vernon is the grave of George Washington, which was open to the public. The grave is usually closed but this day was an exception.

Mount Vernon also has a museum, which shows the history of George Washington and how he used spying and tactics to win the war against the British.

Mount Vernon is a beautiful, historical site and is a must see for visitors, who go to Washington D.C.

World War II Memorial

By Gabriella

On April 30th, 2007 the seventh and eighth grades flew to Washington D.C. The most inspiring memorial to me was the World War II Memorial.

This memorial was equipped with beautiful fountains splashing into a vast pool of crystal clear blue water. While watching the ripples and waves in the water my father, a chaperone for the the trip, was telling me about my grandmother who had served in the war as a nutritionist. He was telling me about how she rescued so many soldiers by making sure they ate the right foods.

I was walking around the memorial trying to find the pillar of Illinois, the state where my grandmother was born. When I located the pillar I just stared at it thinking this pillar was built for my grandmother.

When we had just a few minutes left at the memorial I looked up my grandmother on one of the computers which listed most of the people who had served in the war and there was her picture, occupation in the war, birth-date, time in the war, and when she died. I was looking at her picture and she looked a little different than I remember. It was inspiring to learn that she had served our country and helped many soldiers improve their health.

My grandmother has motivated me to keep moving forward and to get an incredible education to be successful. I appreciate everyone who had the confidence to serve in World War II for the U.S.A. and stand up for their country.

The Library of Congress

By Jarett

On our Washington, D.C. trip we paid a short visit to the Library of Congress, the largest library in the world. It contained a vast amount of books ranging from the smallest book in the world to the largest book in the world and every size in between.

The expert craftsmanship of the library added more depth to the enormous collection of books. Parts of the ceiling are molded with twenty-three karat gold. The library, unlike most of the other buildings in Washington, D.C., is made from marble. One other detail of the library is the children made of marble under the railing of the stairs. Each child holds an object which signifies what they will be when they are grown. One of the children was holding a book, which meant he was going to be a scholar. There were also many breathtaking painting that describe each era of the evolution of man.

The library is dedicated to Thomas Jefferson, our third president. Thomas Jefferson gave three-fourths of his collection of books to the original library in the capitol. Unfortunately, the British burned down the library in the capitol during the War of 1812 along with most of Jefferson's books. But now we have the Library of Congress, which is the largest library in the world, even though the British claim they have the largest. They have forgotten that if they hadn't burned down the library that day, we would definitely have the largest library in the world.

I very much enjoyed our visit to the Library of Congress. All of its statues, huge collections of books, and breathtaking paintings were simply astonishing. I hope that in the future I may be able to visit the Library once again.

Mount Vernon

By Logan

On Wednesday May 2, while on our Washington D.C. trip the seventh and eighth grades went to Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon was the home of the first President, George Washington and his wife Martha Washington.

George Washington brought his family to Mount Vernon in 1759. He then inherited Mount Vernon in 1761, because his half-brother's widow and sister had died.

Mount Vernon overlooks the Potomac River and 8,000 acres of land bought by George Washington after he inherited the house. Mount Vernon is a two and a half story tall mansion situated thirteen miles south of Washington D.C. The Mansion consists of two parlors, a musician room, a banquet hall, a family dining room, and many bedrooms. It also consists of a library were George Washington could sit down in silence and read a book or do his work. Today in the library only seventy-five of the original eight hundred eighty-four books and several hundred duplicate volumes remain.

Mount Vernon was always full of guests because George Washington would never turn anyone away. People would just come up to the front door and ask for food and a place to stay for the night and George Washington would let them stay. One of George's guests stayed at the mansion for seventeen months.

On the property there are many animal stalls and supply rooms where all the supplies to maintain the property were kept. Also, located on the property are the old and new tombs of George Washington and his wife Martha Washington.

I think Mount Vernon was one of the most amazing monuments that we visited on our trip. We got to see all the domestic animals, the buildings, and both tombs. We were very fortunate while looking at the new tomb, because the gates were open so you could could get a better look at the caskets and take a great picture. Mount Vernon was the highlight of my sojourn to Washington D.C.

 

International Spy Museum

By Paolo

The Spy Museum was the last place on the itinerary. It was very fascinating and I really enjoyed this museum. There were many different articles such as the James Bond Car, different artifacts like lipstick pistol, and ring gun.

The James Bond's Car changed every five minutes. It had spikes on the rims, which when pushed out became a weapon. Also machine guns shot from the headlight too. The car changed every five minutes.

There was also air vents where you could climb in the beginning of the museum. The vent was about fifteen feet long. In the movies they are always silent but in real life the vents were very noisy when I crawled through.

There were also three rooms with different spies. For example, woman spies and men spies. They had movies of different spies and they had a game of them showing you spies where you have to find the undercover spy. Then the computer shows how they made the spy look like the man or woman in that scene.

The museum also had a computer to show you where your home is located.

The next room was the gift shop and they had a soda camera, James Bond movies, and many, many other artifacts, which I really enjoyed.