Day 1
Alexis King and Jaron Borcherding
Day one, the day that began the trip of a lifetime. The trip that we’ve been waiting for many years. We were supposed to start our day off at the school at 3:45 a.m. so the chaperones could do bag check. We left at approximately 4:30 a.m. After that, we slept until a little before Wisconsin Dells, where we switched bus drivers. From there we were on the road until we got to Chicago, which is about three hours from where we stopped near Wisconsin Dells. After being stuck in traffic for what felt like forever, we finally made our way to Willis Tower, which used to be called Sears Tower.
We had to take three different elevators and walk all the way up to the 103rd floor. Even though it was a long trip up, it was worth it, due to the fact that we were the only people up there. We got to take our own sweet time, and it was amazing. After hitting up the gift shop, we headed back downstairs so we could travel to our next destination, Millennium Park and its main attraction, “The Bean.” That was an interesting time. Two of the seniors purchased nice bracelets from a little Chinese lady who went up to them, put the bracelets on their wrists and “gave them peace” before trying to sell more of her products. There was a pretty garden that we got to walk through before we went and almost WERE blown away by Lake Michigan. At Lake Michigan we saw a little duck floating around. We named it Chicken Noodle.
From there we made our way towards Notre Dame University, which is in Indiana. We ate lunch on the way there, and it took almost two hours to get there. Once we got there, we took a look at the Fighting Irish statue, and then we made our way towards the the Joyce Center gymnasium. We took some pictures and went up to a Alumni hall with a bunch of awards. There are two Heisman Memorial Trophies at Notre Dame and a bunch of other awards. Then we went over to the pool and watched some people practice their diving routines for a couple of minutes. Afterwards we then went over to the upper seating of the gymnasium and took some more pictures.
Then we went to the gift shop before we went on our way to the hotel in Maumee, Ohio. We had a pizza party there, and Fillmore Central was at the same hotel as we were. Our room check was at 10 p.m., and we had to be up at 4 in the morning the next day.
Day Two
Yasmin Scrabeck and Dillon Allar
Day two started off with us waking up at 3:45 a.m. in our hotel in Maumee, Ohio. Due to our early rise, we weren’t able to eat breakfast until later. The hotel was nice enough to send with us a box of assorted donuts. Once on the bus, most of us went back to sleep until our breakfast stop. If anyone was awake during this time, they would have seen our amazing bus driver Mark battle snow and rain coming down on the road. We stopped at a trucker stop and had Panera breakfast sandwiches or some sort of Panera breakfast food along with the donuts the hotel had given us. We then headed off to Gettysburg, Pa. It was a couple of hours until we got there. At around 1:30, we arrived in Gettysburg, a whole hour ahead of schedule. At the visitor’s center we watched a movie and saw an amazing cyclorama featuring an oil-on-canvas painting 377 feet long.
After our stop at the visitor’s center, we were taken to the battlefield. A few statues were pointed out to us before we walked to the national cemetery. One of the first things we did was practice our cannon loading skills. It took a number of tries, but eventually the girls proved that they were indeed faster at loading a cannon than the guys were. So if you’re ever in need of a cannon squad, let us know.
Our tour of the cemetery was interesting. We stopped at unmarked and marked graves alike. Monuments are everywhere in Gettysburg. One of the best monuments we stopped at was the Friend to Friend monument. It shows how horrible the war really was, pitting brother against brother, friend against friend.
We walked to our hotel once we were finished with the cemetery. Mark already had our bags there, waiting. At the hotel, we were briefed on what time to meet at the hotel once again (7:30) and that we had to eat before then.
The class split into two groups. Half of us went to the Dobbin House, and the other half walked to The Pub (The guys will recommend the Gut-Buster.) On the way back, Dillon and Talon found $60! How is that for some good luck? When everyone got back, we had to meet outside of the hotel at 7:30 for the night tour.
We saw Tyler Augedahl get dressed in the clothing of what an average Civil War soldier would be dressed in. We learned some basic commands about marching, and we set off for our night tour. The night was the coldest that we experienced on the trip and also the windiest. We snuck around and pretended we were soldiers on the battlefield. Mr. Wyffels did an incredible job at showing us certain statues and monuments and the powerful message they represent. At one point he had us marching in rows and chanting some odd marching tunes. We went inside the Pennsylvania Memorial and made a circle of about 20 people, and each one of us was given a candle. Once everyone had a lit candle, we sang Amazing Grace for the soldiers from Minnesota that fought in the Civil War. It was a very empowering moment for all us because we finally realized that we were here on the trip that we had been waiting to go on since we were little. Then we went to the New York Monument that was a semi-circle. Mr Wyffels had us do a whispering game where one person would be on one side of the semicircle and the other on the other side. One person would whisper, and because the shape of the monument, the person on the other side could hear the whisper clear as day. Lastly, Mr. Wyffels had us line up and yell “HUZZAH!” to see if we could get any echoes. Unfortunately for our little company comprised of 19 people, there wasn’t much to hear. The wind took our voices away. After that, we made our trek back to the hotel, and by the time everyone got back, everyone was extremely tired and ready for bed.
Day 3
Jarod Batres and Anna Uhrhammer
On Day 3, Saturday April 8, we started our day out with breakfast at the hotel. After that, we got on the bus and picked up our tour guide, Mike and went to the Gettysburg Battlefield National Military Park. It was so pretty because the sun was coming up while we were touring. We were on and off the bus a lot. Some of the places we stopped at were Little Round Top, Devil’s Den, The 1st Minnesota Monument, the Irish Brigade Monument, and the Virginia Monument with General Lee on top.
After our tour, we went and dropped our tour guide off and went to eat lunch at General Pickett’s Buffet. There was also a gift store upstairs. After the buffet, we drove to Harper’s Ferry, where John Brown’s raid took place in 1859. Harper’s Ferry was very hilly; there were lots of stairs and steep hills. Many of us had to walk up a very steep hill to see Jefferson Rock. Jefferson Rock overlooks the Shenandoah and Potomac River. It was such a cute town, and there were so many stores and museums to visit. A lot of us got ice cream because it was a hot and sunny day.
After that, we drove through Shenandoah National Park, and we stopped at Big Hogsback Overlook (elevation 3,385 ft) on the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was really windy and kind of chilly up there. We spent the night in Charlottesville, Va., and we had a pizza party.
Day 4: Sunday, April 9
Kayla and Talon
Wake up call was 6 a.m. We ate breakfast and then loaded by 7:15. Our first stop was Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. We got to see the farmland, the outside of the building, and the huts around the building that the slaves stayed in as well, but we didn’t get to see the inside of the building because the inside was under renovation and restoration. After a little self-exploration, we made our way back down the mountain and to the bus and went to our next spot, Monument Boulevard in Richmond, Va. We saw many famous statues, a lot of them being from the Civil War era. After that we ate lunch at the 5-Star and 5-Diamond rated Jefferson Hotel. We had sandwiches with bowtie noodles and glazed salads. For dessert we had cheesecake cake with chocolate sticks. After eating we got a small tour from our server at the hotel. We were shown the small and large ballrooms mainly used for weddings and small celebrations. We got to see the statue of Thomas Jefferson and where they used to keep baby alligators. After the tour we loaded up and left for St. John’s Church, where we saw the grave of Edgar Allen Poe’s mother. At St. John’s Church, Alexis read the last paragraph of Patrick Henry’s speech “Give me liberty or give me death” in front of the church. Afterwards, we played cards on the bus until finally arriving at Jamestown, Va., the birthplace of America. We toured around and saw a lot of restored buildings and even a diagram of what the Jamestown Fort would have looked like back in the day. After more self-exploration, we left Jamestown and went to Colonial Williamsburg. Colonial Williamsburg was interesting because it had a lot original buildings and restored buildings, too. They had lots of shops that made colonial times items, weapons, jewelry, and even food.
We got a small tour from Mr. Wyffels, and after that we went back to the hotel to relax for a bit until we went back out to Colonial Williamsburg for the final event of the night, the Williamsburg night time tour. It’s different every year, but this year they took us on a ghost story walk. We visited three different buildings with three different stories. They were good stories, and the actors were really good. That actors made it feel like there were the real people telling the stories. After the stories were done, we left back for the hotel to finish the day.
Day 5
Matheus Canamary
After a night in Colonial Williamsburg, wakeup call was at 6:15 on Monday morning. We got all our bags packed and took them out to the bus at 7 a.m. After we all ate breakfast and loaded the bus at 7:15, we made our journey back to Colonial Williamsburg once again. Once we arrived there, we started walking towards the Governor’s Royal Palace to get in line for a tour. The first small room of the Palace was filled quickly when we all sat down. A few minutes went by until the tour first began with our tour guide’s introduction. As we toured the palace, we were amazed by all the swords, guns, and other weapons on the walls. We also were able to see where the governor and guests slept, the dining hall, and the dance hall. After the tour was over, Mr. Wyffels took us around to the back of the palace to see the garden, the maze, and other small buildings.
After we were done walking around with Mr. Wyffels, he let us go on our own for a few hours. We had to meet by the Armory at 12:45 pm. During those few hours, we could walk and go wherever we wanted around Colonial Williamsburg. The only thing we were supposed to do was go see the Capitol. Some of the other places my classmates went to was the blacksmith shop, the apothecary, the courthouse, the insane asylum, and many more. There were many things to do in Colonial Williamsburg.
When we all met up and got on the bus, we drove to the William and Mary College, where we had lunch. We all thought the lunch area was confusing because it went in a circle, but overall, it seemed like a very nice college in Virginia. After we were all satisfied, we loaded the bus once again to head to our next destination in Charles City, Va., which was Shirley Plantation. As soon as we got off the bus, we were introduced to our tour guide named Julian. He was a very nice and energetic man. He made the tour through the house a lot of fun. After touring the mansion, he took us to the lawn where we played lawn bowling. This game made everyone very competitive, which made it even more fun. After the game, we were allowed to roam around to check out the gift shop, the animals, and all the other buildings around the plantation.
We loaded the bus after about 30 minutes and started to head for our hotel for the night, which was in Fredericksburg. Soon after we got to the hotel, we were told to come down to the lobby for dinner. We had Subway that night, which included two 6-inch subs, a bag of chips, and a cookie for everyone. Many people switched chips and cookies with one another. When we done eating, most went back to their hotel rooms. A few people changed to go swimming in the hotel’s pool, while others just hung out in their rooms. The pool was very chilly, so the students who did go swimming didn’t stay in for very long. Most of the class decided to play cards instead. The few who didn’t play just hung out in a room painting nails, threading eyebrows, watching a movie, and talking. Bed check was at 10 p.m., so everyone had to go to their own rooms and get some sleep at that time.
Day 6
Coranda Vickerman and Weston Whalen
On the sixth day of the senior class trip, we woke up at 7 a.m. We had an hour to get ready and eat our complimentary hotel breakfast before we loaded the bus at 8:00. At 8:30, we headed to the Marine Museum at Quantico. We got to the museum at around 9:00, and we walked around there for an hour and a half. We saw Marine history from every single war since the Marines started in the mid-1700s. There was a gift shop at the museum, so, of course, we looked in there. Lots of people bought things here. After we were done at the museum at 10:30, we went to the Drydock Restaurant at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. We arrived around 12 and had lunch. For lunch we had a choice of turkey or ham sandwiches, potato chips, Oreos, and our choice from a variety of drinks. It was very good. At about 12:45 we left Drydock Restaurant for the Armel-Leftwich Visitor Center at the U.S. Naval Academy, where we met our tour guide, Charles. We had some time to look in the gift shop before our tour started at 1:30. On the tour we saw the pool, their sports Hall of Fame, wrestling room, the crypt of John Paul Jones, a statue where Charles told us a story about a task that the freshman must complete in order to be accepted as sophomores, pictures of famous and important Marines, a mock dorm room, and dormitory. Then we toured some of the rest of their beautiful campus. Charles also explained some of the things that they require the Marines to do before they graduate, and no one has ever failed to do any of them. After the tour, we had a little more time to shop and left the U.S. Naval Academy at 3:00. At about 4:30, we arrived at our Comfort Hotel in Falls Church, Va., a suburb of Washington, DC.
At the hotel we had some time to relax before our night walk in DC. Some people went to the McDonald’s next door to get ice cream, while others took a nap. At 6:15 we boarded the bus and headed to Joe’s Souvenir Shop in downtown DC. We shopped at Joe’s for 30 minutes until 6:45 when we all bought lots of souvenirs. From 6:45 to 7:45 we drove around and saw some monuments and important buildings such as the Capitol. Then Mark, our bus driver, dropped us off at the Vietnam Wall. We looked at the Vietnam Wall, Vietnam Soldier statue, Korean Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, MLK Memorial, FDR Memorial, Washington Monument, and the Jefferson Memorial. It was a lot of walking, but it was worth it. When we met at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Mr. Wyffels shook all of our hands, gave us a penny, and said, “Thank you for coming.” Then again at the FDR memorial, Mr. Wyffels gave each of us a dime, shook our hands and again said, “Thank you for coming.” Once more, at the Jefferson Memorial, Mr. Wyffels shook all of our hands, gave us each a nickel and said, “Thank you for coming.” He did this at these places because Lincoln is on the penny, FDR is on the dime, and Jefferson is on the nickel. He said, “Thank you for coming,” because he said we could have stayed in Mabel, Minn., but we didn’t. We were picked up by the Jefferson Memorial around 10:30 and brought back to the hotel. There we all showered and then fell asleep pretty easily, as we were all very tired.
Day 7
Courtney Graves and Debra Hershberger
We started the day by waking up at 6:30 a.m. Our first stop that morning was U.S. Capitol Hill. We walked around the Capitol for a while, and Mr. Wyffels showed us a small building outside of the Capitol where we discussed the selling of slaves. We also saw the Library of Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court Building. We waited in a line outside of the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center to go through security. In the visitor center, we were given a tour by one of the guides, where we were allowed to go in three rooms: The Crypt, Statutory Hall and the Rotunda.
After the tour, we had to walk quickly to our large group photo in front of the U.S. Capitol. Our class is so small that we all stood in one row, unlike previous years when the senior class stood in two or more rows. After smiling for a few minutes, we walked to the Archives of the United States of America. There was a long line of people waiting outside to get in, but we had reservations to get in at 10:45 a.m. so there was no waiting for us! We walked right in after security, of course. From there, we had to go up a flight of stairs to another long line, which led to the actual documents of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence. Once we got to the documents, there were tons of people. so we basically had to shove our way up to see them closely. We only spent about half an hour in the Archives Museum.
After the National Archives Museum, we walked to the Air and Space Museum to get lunch and to tour. Most of us went to McDonald’s inside the museum, but, of course, we had to go through security to even enter the museum. We arrived at the Air and Space at noon, and we had until 2:00 to look around. Most people stayed inside Air and Space to look at all the airplanes, and Talon even played a game where he could fly the plane. After about an hour in the Air and Space, a group of us walked over to the Art Museum and explored there for a little bit. We were only there for about half an hour, and then we went back to the Air and Space Museum, where we hung out until it was time to leave.
Mr.Wyffels met us outside of Air and Space and told us where we were going to next. We loaded the bus, and we were off to have a White House walking tour, a tour of Lafayette Park, and a tour of the Blair House. When we arrived outside of the White House, it was sunny and hot, and there was a ton of people. We walked to the Blair House first, and Mr. Wyffels told us the history about that house. After he talked about that, we walked over to the fence of the White House. We talked about the White House, and then we took a quick group picture. After the group photo, we walked to the Andrew Jackson Statue where multiple people took pictures, so we all took some pictures at that statue. After the picture we loaded the bus, and we headed back to the hotel to get ready for Ford’s Theatre.
We had about two hours to take a nap and get ready. The bus opened at 4:30 p.m., and we didn’t leave until 4:45 p.m. After we left the hotel, we were headed to have dinner at Gordon Biersch. Once we arrived at the Gordon Biersch, it was about 5:15 p.m. The food options were pasta, cheeseburger, chicken, mahi-mahi, or steak. After eating we celebrated Yasmin’s birthday! At 6:45 p.m., we walked to Ford’s Theatre for the musical, “Ragtime.” The show started at 7:30, so we walked around the museum until then. The musical was wonderful, and the whole class loved it! After the play, we drove to the Kennedy Center to take pictures. It was a beautiful night for pictures, so we were outside for a bit. After we took pictures, we headed back to the hotel for the rest of the night. Room check was right when we got back, which was about 10:30 p.m.
On our 8th day
Karine Alkhatib
It was sad to think about the fact that the senior trip is coming to an end. Our busy, funny days were so close to ending.
Our first stop was Mount Vernon, the house of George Washington. We got into his house and saw his original bedroom. We also got to tour the whole plantation, see his grave, and many different corners of his property. Once done with the former president’s house, we headed towards Arlington National Cemetery, a United States military cemetery in Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington D.C. All the stories our guide, Mr. Wyffels talked about were interesting. A lot of cherry blossoms bloomed at the cemetery, but the most beautiful and emotional part of the day was silently watching the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the senior officers laying a wreath with a U.S. Army Guard. A whole bunch of patriotic emotions exploded.
Iwo Jima Marine Memorial was our next stop. The senior president was offered a U.S flag. After taking group pictures, we headed towards the hotel where we rested for three hours and got ready for the boat! Everyone looked nice for the boat. After dinner, everybody was on the dance floor. Lots of fun!
Day 9
By Alexis King
Our last day in D.C started out like pretty much every other day on the trip: wake up, get ready, finish packing, and leave the hotel. From the hotel we went to Joe’s Souvenir shop so we could get anything else that we may have forgotten or decided that we wanted. We finished at Joe’s and ventured to the back of Ford’s Theatre, and our wonderful teacher and tour guide showed us where John Wilkes Booth would have mounted his horse after he shot Lincoln. From there we made our way to the Vietnam Wall where we did our name rubbings. We all chose a name that had some sort of relevance to something that intrigued us.
Although we had to do a little bit of research for the names, it was well worth it. Many people chose people who came from Minnesota, from around the same area in which we are in or someone with the same birthday. I personally chose a guy named Gary who had the same birthday as me and was from Winona. I just thought it was interesting because I haven’t found many people with the same birthday as me, much less anyone from anywhere close to here. As many of us finished up our name rubbings, we all ventured over to the Lincoln Memorial, which was our meeting spot. There were a few people that made their way over to the Korean Memorial before they met up with us at the Lincoln Memorial.
Not long after we all arrived at the meeting spot, some of us shared the person’s name that we scratched and why that name. As soon as everyone shared, we made our way to the World War II Memorial. Three words for you: It was spectacular! There is no way to even describe this memorial, so you’ll just have to go visit it yourself… or Google it. Your choice. We weren’t there very long before we meandered our way to the Washington Memorial and took pictures. From there we made our way to the Holocaust Museum. I think that that opened our eyes a little bit. We all got an “identification card” of a person and their story. I got a young adult who was 19 years of age, I’ll let you guess what happened to her. I’m not sure what other people got, but I know one things for sure; they all went through that museum and got to see the lives of many of the people that lived in the camps. They all saw or read about the pain and torture that those poor people went through, knowing that no one could help them at that time.
We all went through the Holocaust Museum at our own pace and left with heavy hearts. As soon as we left the one place we all dreaded to be, we made our way to the History Smithsonian. We had the choice to go to the Natural or American History museums. Many people didn’t actually get the chance to go in and look around, due to the fact that we had to eat lunch before we left at 2:30. Two of my friends and I waited in line to get into the Natural History Museum, and even though the line was really long, it wasn’t long before we were in the museum on our way to the food court. We purchased expensive food and went to the gift shop before we headed upstairs to go look at the dinosaurs and the Hope Diamond.
We were sick of crowds and getting close to the time that we had to meet up with everyone, so we decided to leave and make our way to the American History Museum, which is where we were meeting up. At 2:30 p.m., we got on the bus and headed for home. On the bus we were asked about what we did and saw after the Holocaust Museum, and then we got a little free time to sleep or play on our phones or whatever it is you do on a bus. After our first bathroom stop, we got a little more us time; then we had to go into “tour mode.” That’s where we learn about things and talk about our trip experiences. Mr. Wyffels reviewed the days of the tour. Before we went to sleep for the night, we played a road mile game where we guessed how many miles we’ve gone from place to place. We finished off the night by saying what our favorite part or parts of the trip were and some “feely” stuff. There were tears shed and hugs provided. Those were the events of day 9.
The Final Day: April 15
Wayne Ross
The final day. On April 15 we woke up to our favorite song “Wake Up, Little Susie” by the Everly Brothers. Like always, Mr. Wyffels had the volume turned up, and it just blasted in our ears. I remember the first day we woke up to that. We were coming into Wisconsin Dells, and he had the volume all the way up. I had woken up before it played, but everyone, including me, jumped out of his/her seats.
On the last day we stopped in Wisconsin Dells again to get some breakfast. We went to McDonald’s. While we were getting our food, the bus driver got gas for the bus, and a new bus driver came to switch places with him since he was driving all night. As we got back on the bus, I could hear everyone sigh. Most of us were anxious to get back home after spending time in different cities and seeing so many different things. Even though the feeling was not the same for everyone. One of those people was Anna. She wanted to get home and see her boyfriend, or “FuFu,” as Mr. Wyffels would say.
He told us a story about how people would wait for the bus to pass in Caledonia to follow us home. They would have long line of cars following the bus. He made a joke about Talon saying, “Every mile closer to home we get, that’s a mile further away from Talon’s “FuFu.”
He then talked about things that happen after the trip. He told us how students sometimes get depressed and don’t want to be there, while some students’ grades drop. He wanted us to look for people who were depressed and help them out, but I have no fear about that. Our class has become much closer during the trip; I feel we can always ask each other for help. I know our class loved the trip. We look forward to travel ourselves. So I had better start saving up for my next trip.
Mrs. Wenthold says
Wonderful replay of the trip that will remain in their memories!