Washington, D.C. With Honors

Baylie made the district's audition honor choir this year. The choir performed a few local concerts and the students also had the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C., for America Sings, a concert performed by choirs across the country on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The trip was expensive and every child had to have a parent with them. The cost was around $1,500 dollars and was something that we couldn't afford. 

Baylie decided she would earn the money herself. She earned most of it by baking cookies that she sold for $5 a dozen. She also did yard work for some neighbors. She earned over $1,300! And she did all the work herself. David and I were so proud of her. 

Some batches went more smoothly than others.

All of her hard work paid off when she got on the bus to head to D.C. She was excited to travel with her good friend Isabella.

It was supposed to be an 8-hour bus ride with an hour break for lunch on the way. We left at 6 in the morning.

When we stopped for a break at a rest stop, the kids all sang. It was fun.

Baylie had Isabella and I had her om, Yasmin, who is one of my best friends. It would not have been as fun for me without her.

Our first stop in Washington was at Arlington National Cemetery. It's such a spiritual place.

Irmo's Group

Irmo's Group with Parents

We were able to catch the tail end of the cherry blossoms.

I was touched by this headstone for an infant.

We were able to watch the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier. I was so impressed with how respectful all the young people were at the tomb. There were hundreds of kids and they were all quiet and respectful. Ironically, the only people making noise were those that had "Make America Great" sweatshirts on, but even they weren't too bad.

It was so fun spending time just me and Baylie.

The eternal flame at John F. Kennedy's grave. 

John F. and Jaqueline Kennedy and two of their children are buried here.

Honor choir at Arlington. 

Me and my girl.

Unfortunately, the tour group decided to not have us stay at the hotel where the groups were practicing, so we had to spend A LOT of time in the hotel lobby. This was a cool phone in the lobby.

We ate dinner one night and breakfast the next morning at the Hard Rock Cafe. Honestly, I don't think it was the greatest choice for elementary school kids. The videos were mostly inappropriate and the kids didn't know who any of the memorabilia belonged to. Plus, the food has never been great. (Actually, we didn't eat that great on the trip.)

Hard Rock was just down the block from Ford's Theater - the Ford's Theater - where Lincoln was shot. Amazing.

Across the street was Lincoln's Waffle Shopt, a cool looking building. (Wish we could have had breakfast here.)

It was also across the street from a souvenir shop where I bought myself an amazing NCIS hat. (Yasmin was humiliated that I wore it everywhere, but I love it!)

Another cool looking building.

We had the high table at Hard Rock.

I took more selfies on this trip than in my whole life put together.

I took a picture in front of Elvis for my brother, Clark, the greatest Elvis fan I know.

America Sings is led by John Jacobson. He seems to be a bit of a celebrity among K-12 music teachers. 

Sarah, Isabella, John and Baylie

Different musical guests provide workshops for the students. One of the groups was Vox Audio. Michelle Mailhot of the group gave a workshop on jazz scat. She called Baylie up to the front for a demo.

As part of the workshops, the kids did some charity work. We collected spiral bound notebooks for a local school and the kids made pb&j sandwiches for the homeless. We brought the peanut butter and jelly with us for this project.

Saturday morning, the combined choirs had a rehearsal at the Lincoln Memorial.

It was a bit chilly.

We had a little bit of time to check out the nearby monuments.

 

Our group had their own little performance. They sounded great. (Baylie is the one with the big white bow.)

Video #1

Video #2

Video #3

In between the small group performance and the America Sings concert, we had about three hours of free time. It was the only free time the kids had the entire trip. 

The Smithsonian

The Capitol Building

 

Baylie and I decided to go to the National Archives to see the original copies of the Constitution, Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. I had never been there before. It was a little emotional for me to realize what I was looking at and who had touched them before me. You can't take pictures in there.

 We went to the National Museum of American History. We took a picture of the Batmobile for Jalen. So cool!

We had some sticker shock when we ate lunch there. This tiny bit of food cost $40!

Our next stop was to see the gallery of the first ladies' dresses. Baylie loved this section.

Then it was time for the big performance.

It was hard to see because people in the front wouldn't sit down. (Baylie is still the one in the white bow.)

Baylie had a speaking part, which was really cool. Another little girl from Irmo had a singing solo so the school was well represented.

That night we ran into the crowds leaving a Washington Capitals hockey game.

 After dinner, we got to go take a picture of the white house all lit up.

There were a couple groups of protesters. One was about Armenian genocide. The other was this group. I'm not sure what they were protesting, but they looked interesting. Baylie was freaked out that I took their picture.

The girls were embarrassed that we asked these officers to take a picture with them. Yasmin and I thought it was cool.

The Treasury

Sunday morning we had a few hours at the National Zoo. We headed straight for the pandas. They were fun to watch.

Red pandas

Funny girl

Tiger

Lion

Cute girls

The baby orangutan was so cute!

So was the baby gorilla.

While we were in Washington, D.C., Jalen went on a field trip to the zoo. He saw gorillas too! He got to be with his buddy Lucas.

Baylie and Jalen really missed each other. They were so happy to see each other again. (That didn't keep them from arguing as soon as they were back together...) It was great to be back together as a family. It was sure fun spending some one on one time with my little girl though.