Field trips

One of the advantages of living in an historical city like this is the opportunity to visit museums and sights. We have been here for almost one month, and haven't really taken advantage - except 2 school field trips I had the privilege of attending.

The first was a trip to Lincoln's cottage - his "camp David" - which he spent every summer except his first in office. The cottage is North of town (I think) and is located next to a retirement home for soldiers which is still in operation today. There is also a huge cemetary on the grounds, with civil war soldiers. It was quite impressive to look at all of the uniform headstones - and there are a ton.

We learned that Lincoln rode a horse into town everyday to work from the cottage, and that his favorite things to do were to play with his sons on the lawn, and spend time with the soldiers. Lincoln is highly revered, still, and since it is the 200th year there were a ton of activities about President Lincoln.

The cottage itself was a little disappointing. Our tour guide was really strange (reminded me of Eugene from Grease) and did not talk about the things that I was interested in. He was so annoying, in fact, that it was difficult to listen to him at all, and the kids were doing very accurate impressions of him halfway through the tour.

Here are some pics of the cottage, and the 5th grade class.

Harrison's 5th grade class outside the Lincoln cabin


Harrison's buddy Jack
The kids were participating in a reenactment of Lincoln's cabinet making the decision about the emancipation.



Harrison's head wasn't quite big enough.

Apparently they don't have the lice problem at this school we had at Vis...still, I refrained from wearing one of the hats on principle. : )


5th Grade class on the steps of Lincoln's summer cottage, where Abe played checkers with the soldiers and overlooked the lawn where his sons played.

The next week, the 3,4 and 5th graders from St. Peter's went on a field trip to Ford's Theater to watch a play. The play was a 2 man deal where the actors reenacted the days following the assassination of President Lincoln. It was pretty good, although I am not sure how much the kids understood. The language was old for them, I think.

We walked to the metro from school, and I had a group of 4 3rd graders - cuties! We played games along the way.


Antonio, Nat, Quin and Andy at school getting ready to leave


Waiting for the metro in the station

It was pretty nerve wracking being responsible for 4 squirelly boys in the metro. It was also my 2nd time to ride the metro, and I had no idea where we were supposed to go, and the groups were a bit scattered...so, I had to ask the 9 year olds in my group where to go. Luckily, little Andy is quite the authority on metro riding. I kept asking "Are you sure that is where we are supposed to stand?" and "Are you sure we aren't supposed to get on the other train?" Andy was so funny, and said "Trust me, I know what I am doing. I ride the metro all the time."

I guess we will be that confident some day.


We made it on the right one... thanks to Andy.


Our group outside Ford's theater



In front of Abe


Inside the theater waiting for the play to start


Boys with Abe


Lincoln's box where the assassination took place

Apparently the box has been untouched for the most part - which I find interesting since Ford's theater was abandoned for years, then was used for offices, and something else before being restored to its original state. During the play, we learned that John Wilkes Booth was an esteemed actor, and therefore had free run of the theater that night because he was "known", which provided him easy access to the box, and allowed him to carry out his plot without anyone really stopping him. He had been "hanging" around the theater earlier in the day, doctored the wall of the booth, so that he could lock it from the inside, and also wrote a letter and gave it to one of the stage hands that would have been incriminating had the stage hand read it early enough. Instead the stage hand followed Booth's instructions which were to take the note to the post in the morning.


I couldn't contain them any longer. They turned into monkeys on the way back.

It was a fun trip! One of many to come, I hope.