Personal Narrative: The Battle Of Gettysburg
It was two in the morning. I got out of bed, running on three hours of sleep. I ran downstairs after getting ready for a long bus ride. I saw my mom and grandpa waiting downstairs, as my grandpa was going on the trip with me. When at the school, teachers checked our bags, kind of like the airport. After this check, we were off (well, about an hour later). Now it was off on our new home for the next 12 hours. For the first three hours, everyone slept. It was boring and I will skip that. We then pulled over for our breakfast stop. When we stopped, the teachers passed out our boxes of bagels. We proceeded to get back on the road next, which was a rather long time. About four hours of driving through Ohio farms and Pennsylvania hills,
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we reached our next stop for lunch, a little rest stop in a little town that looked oddly familiar to me. I soon realized that we stopped here for gas when we drove to Williamsburg in Virginia, we stopped here. However, the memories of that tripped were soon gone away after the stress I had waiting for my lunch, as I wanted DQ and my partner, Landon, wanted Subway, and he made me wait with him, it took me over an hour to get my food. But then it was ok, cause we were on the road, and someone told us to put our hands up and scream when we go under tunnels, which entertained us all (Not so much the parents probably). There were four very long tunnels ahead, so the next 40 minutes of the ride were spent screaming like we were all on a roller coaster. After this time in the Appalachian Mountains, we arrived at the final stop before DC: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Now at the historic town that is Gettysburg, we stopped at a museum were, after poking around the gift shop with my grandpa, we saw a movie on Gettysburg that was about 10 minutes long.
I think, for I was one of many who fell asleep at the movie, as I can’t sleep during day time usually. After a quick on/off power nap, we headed to a must more interesting area, a 360 painting of the Battle of Gettysburg. After this stop, we got back on the buses and met our new tour guide, Rick. Along with that, we met our bus driver officially, who was Chris. Chris carted us around the war zone while Rick informed us about it, with many stops at statues and cannons from the battle. However, my favorite stop of Gettysburg was at a little rocky hill, where we got some amazing pictures of the view and sunset over the hilly areas of Gettysburg. Then, we proceeded to eat at a local buffet, where I bought a flag in the store overhead. However, with the sun almost set, it was time to head to DC, and our hotel, which we got to in a few hours. Then me, Landon, Noel, and Logan headed up to our room, and after setting up a sleeping arrangement that had Logan and Noel in one bed, Landon in the other, and me in the chairs, we were off to bed to get some much needed …show more content…
rest.
It was now Tuesday, and the second day of our DC trip. After waking up to a rather annoying wake up call, we all got ready for the day. At around 7, we headed down to breakfast after Mrs. Johnson checked on us to make sure we were all up. There, we had a preview of the day ahead, and then it was off to our bus, where Rick and Chris were waiting for us. Our first stop of the day was the FDR memorial, where we saw the life of FDR in many different areas, the many waterfalls in the memorial, and the Japanese Cherry Blossoms blooming on the shoreline. After that memorial, we headed to the MLK Jr. Memorial, with the giant stones and the statue of him being the dominant features there. Next, we went to the National Cathedral, which was a beautiful (and massive building). The Reagan Trade Center was the home of the many options of restaurants we had for lunch, and our way out, we saw a protest, along with some lucky students seeing Bernie Sanders in the protest. After that stop, it was off to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, where all of our nation's heroes that fell in combat since the Civil War are held. It was a rather somber stop, but we did see the Changing of the Guard, where afterwards, four fortunate students got to do the Wreath Laying Ceremony, and my good friend Mitch was one of the students chosen.
After a rather sad stop, we headed to the Lincoln Memorial, where the band and chorus performed, with three chorus students doing an amazing… “solo”. Next was the the Smithsonian Museums of Natural History and American History. Most buses chose one to go to, but we spent 30 minutes in both. My group spent most of time in the Natural History museum trying to get Noel to slow down, while the American History museum was much more relaxed and calm. Dinner this night was at a (Horrible) Mexican restaurant, where I sat at the allergy table cause Logan and Landon both had allergies. However, to make up for this bad dinner, we got to the stop we were waiting for, which was the rec center. There, I did a buddy swap were me and Vasilios went swimming together. There, we did dives off the tall board, and some off the short board. Vasilios proceeded to dedicate a short board belly flop to Mrs. Dusute, which made her laugh. Af many more dives, we changed and left the rec center. When we made it back to hotel, we went up to our room, and after watching a bit from a random movie on TV, we went to bed.
I woke up right at the alarm today. Once again, we went down to go have breakfast and to see a review of yesterday, and a preview of today. Today was a rather sad day, with it starting off at the Vietnam Memorial. There, we left off our artifacts for the fallen soldiers that we honored. I left an artifact for Mr. Charles Frederick Boss. Next, we went to the Korean Memorial. After these two stops, we went to the new National Museum of African Americans, where me, Landon, and my grandpa went to the bottom floor and got into the history floors. We only had enough time to see the floor about slavery during colonial times. After this stop, it was off to the Air and Space Museum. I was so excited, as I love space and had heard amazing things about the museum. We only had 30 minutes there, so we had to make it quick. We got off the bus… and got in line for the giant McDonald's inside. After waiting forever for my food, me and Landon got seats… with 5 minutes left. We ended up having to quickly eat our food, and because we can’t take food into the museum, I had to store Landon’s McNuggets in my sweatshirt, and smuggle them out. It was a daring plan… but it had to work. Before we left, I put my hands in my sweatshirt pocket, making the lump look natural. We then left the McDonald’s and were stopped in the lobby, in order to separate us by lunch and get a head count. The lobby was scorching hot, especially with my sweatshirt on. I was tempted to take it off, but I knew I couldn’t. We eventually made it out after five minutes of waiting, and I handed Landon the McNuggets, feeling very proud. We saw others from our bus taking out food from their pockets, as we weren't the only one with this plan.
After lunch, we got on the buses and went to the National Holocaust Museum. This place was one me and my grandpa had visited before, but as we didn’t have tickets, we couldn't get into the main exhibit. We walked into the building, and many could already since the grim atmosphere. We all then proceed to gather into a large area with three elevators. We caught the second one. After this short, packed elevator ride, we made it to the museum. The first thing we saw was a concentration camp prisoner uniform. On this floor, me, Landon, and my grandpa read every single tile, but we eventually had to hurry up, as we were running out of time for other floors. On the next floor, there wasn’t to much, but we read some of it. Now, the second floor. The first thing we saw was a train car that the Nazis used to transport “Inferior People” to concentration camps. From there, we saw some portions of concentration camps, such as the gas chambers. We also saw a model layout of a concentration camp on this floor. This was the end of the museum.
After this, everyone was pretty gloomy, but we made up for it by going to the zoo next. At the zoo… barely anything was out. All we saw was the pandas, the main thing there, the elephants, gorillas, flamingos, and reptiles. We ate at a decent Italian restaurant that night, and then we went off to an improv comedy show which some students got to participate in. It had its moments, but overall, the show was rather bad, especially the end. It was off to the hotel for bed after this, concluding this day in D.C.
The final day in DC was today. After this day, we would leave the city. Everyone got up to the same stuff as the past few days. The first thing we did was take a boat over to Mt. Vernon. Mt. Vernon is the location of George Washington’s house, and after seeing his and Martha’s tomb, we saw the house. After the boat ride back, we went to Union Station, where Landon ate at Subway and I ate at Johnny Rockets. My grandpa loves Johnny Rockets, but didn’t go there because he thought it would be packed. When I told him the line had five people, it looked like he was going to cry.
The Newseum was next, and it was a personal favourite.
We saw the roof view of DC, the movie about historical moments in reporting, and the Berlin Wall, along with the East German guard tower and the beheaded statue of Vladimir Lenin, first leader of the Soviet Union. We also saw Capitol Hill and the Jefferson Memorial, until our newest stop, the Pentagon City Mall. There, I ate at Auntie Anne's and then spent over $40 on flags. After that, we went to see the Pentagon and 9/11 Memorial, a very sad memorial. There were little “Benches” which pointed towards either the Air Force Memorial or Pentagon, depending on if they died in the Pentagon or on the plane. There, a group of loud kids were running around, which led to many of us being angry, as they were very disrespectful. We then went to the WW2 Memorial, where we left our tour guide Rick, which was a rather sad moment. Next up was the hotel, to go in for the
night.
Friday: The last DC Day. We instantly packed our bags and left the hotel, for Annapolis. We said goodbye to DC, and about two hours later, we were in Annapolis. There, we went to the Naval Academy. We had a grand tour of the facility, and learned a lot about going into the navy. From there, I ate at Jimmy Johns and got ice cream. Then, we left for home. All that happened, as everyone was exhausted, we stopped at Golden Corral for dinner, and made it home around 11ish. Me and my grandpa got off to see my mom waiting for us, and after we got home, my grandpa left for his house, and it was straight to bed to me, which brings my DC adventure to a close.
we reached our next stop for lunch, a little rest stop in a little town that looked oddly familiar to me. I soon realized that we stopped here for gas when we drove to Williamsburg in Virginia, we stopped here. However, the memories of that tripped were soon gone away after the stress I had waiting for my lunch, as I wanted DQ and my partner, Landon, wanted Subway, and he made me wait with him, it took me over an hour to get my food. But then it was ok, cause we were on the road, and someone told us to put our hands up and scream when we go under tunnels, which entertained us all (Not so much the parents probably). There were four very long tunnels ahead, so the next 40 minutes of the ride were spent screaming like we were all on a roller coaster. After this time in the Appalachian Mountains, we arrived at the final stop before DC: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Now at the historic town that is Gettysburg, we stopped at a museum were, after poking around the gift shop with my grandpa, we saw a movie on Gettysburg that was about 10 minutes long.
I think, for I was one of many who fell asleep at the movie, as I can’t sleep during day time usually. After a quick on/off power nap, we headed to a must more interesting area, a 360 painting of the Battle of Gettysburg. After this stop, we got back on the buses and met our new tour guide, Rick. Along with that, we met our bus driver officially, who was Chris. Chris carted us around the war zone while Rick informed us about it, with many stops at statues and cannons from the battle. However, my favorite stop of Gettysburg was at a little rocky hill, where we got some amazing pictures of the view and sunset over the hilly areas of Gettysburg. Then, we proceeded to eat at a local buffet, where I bought a flag in the store overhead. However, with the sun almost set, it was time to head to DC, and our hotel, which we got to in a few hours. Then me, Landon, Noel, and Logan headed up to our room, and after setting up a sleeping arrangement that had Logan and Noel in one bed, Landon in the other, and me in the chairs, we were off to bed to get some much needed …show more content…
rest.
It was now Tuesday, and the second day of our DC trip. After waking up to a rather annoying wake up call, we all got ready for the day. At around 7, we headed down to breakfast after Mrs. Johnson checked on us to make sure we were all up. There, we had a preview of the day ahead, and then it was off to our bus, where Rick and Chris were waiting for us. Our first stop of the day was the FDR memorial, where we saw the life of FDR in many different areas, the many waterfalls in the memorial, and the Japanese Cherry Blossoms blooming on the shoreline. After that memorial, we headed to the MLK Jr. Memorial, with the giant stones and the statue of him being the dominant features there. Next, we went to the National Cathedral, which was a beautiful (and massive building). The Reagan Trade Center was the home of the many options of restaurants we had for lunch, and our way out, we saw a protest, along with some lucky students seeing Bernie Sanders in the protest. After that stop, it was off to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, where all of our nation's heroes that fell in combat since the Civil War are held. It was a rather somber stop, but we did see the Changing of the Guard, where afterwards, four fortunate students got to do the Wreath Laying Ceremony, and my good friend Mitch was one of the students chosen.
After a rather sad stop, we headed to the Lincoln Memorial, where the band and chorus performed, with three chorus students doing an amazing… “solo”. Next was the the Smithsonian Museums of Natural History and American History. Most buses chose one to go to, but we spent 30 minutes in both. My group spent most of time in the Natural History museum trying to get Noel to slow down, while the American History museum was much more relaxed and calm. Dinner this night was at a (Horrible) Mexican restaurant, where I sat at the allergy table cause Logan and Landon both had allergies. However, to make up for this bad dinner, we got to the stop we were waiting for, which was the rec center. There, I did a buddy swap were me and Vasilios went swimming together. There, we did dives off the tall board, and some off the short board. Vasilios proceeded to dedicate a short board belly flop to Mrs. Dusute, which made her laugh. Af many more dives, we changed and left the rec center. When we made it back to hotel, we went up to our room, and after watching a bit from a random movie on TV, we went to bed.
I woke up right at the alarm today. Once again, we went down to go have breakfast and to see a review of yesterday, and a preview of today. Today was a rather sad day, with it starting off at the Vietnam Memorial. There, we left off our artifacts for the fallen soldiers that we honored. I left an artifact for Mr. Charles Frederick Boss. Next, we went to the Korean Memorial. After these two stops, we went to the new National Museum of African Americans, where me, Landon, and my grandpa went to the bottom floor and got into the history floors. We only had enough time to see the floor about slavery during colonial times. After this stop, it was off to the Air and Space Museum. I was so excited, as I love space and had heard amazing things about the museum. We only had 30 minutes there, so we had to make it quick. We got off the bus… and got in line for the giant McDonald's inside. After waiting forever for my food, me and Landon got seats… with 5 minutes left. We ended up having to quickly eat our food, and because we can’t take food into the museum, I had to store Landon’s McNuggets in my sweatshirt, and smuggle them out. It was a daring plan… but it had to work. Before we left, I put my hands in my sweatshirt pocket, making the lump look natural. We then left the McDonald’s and were stopped in the lobby, in order to separate us by lunch and get a head count. The lobby was scorching hot, especially with my sweatshirt on. I was tempted to take it off, but I knew I couldn’t. We eventually made it out after five minutes of waiting, and I handed Landon the McNuggets, feeling very proud. We saw others from our bus taking out food from their pockets, as we weren't the only one with this plan.
After lunch, we got on the buses and went to the National Holocaust Museum. This place was one me and my grandpa had visited before, but as we didn’t have tickets, we couldn't get into the main exhibit. We walked into the building, and many could already since the grim atmosphere. We all then proceed to gather into a large area with three elevators. We caught the second one. After this short, packed elevator ride, we made it to the museum. The first thing we saw was a concentration camp prisoner uniform. On this floor, me, Landon, and my grandpa read every single tile, but we eventually had to hurry up, as we were running out of time for other floors. On the next floor, there wasn’t to much, but we read some of it. Now, the second floor. The first thing we saw was a train car that the Nazis used to transport “Inferior People” to concentration camps. From there, we saw some portions of concentration camps, such as the gas chambers. We also saw a model layout of a concentration camp on this floor. This was the end of the museum.
After this, everyone was pretty gloomy, but we made up for it by going to the zoo next. At the zoo… barely anything was out. All we saw was the pandas, the main thing there, the elephants, gorillas, flamingos, and reptiles. We ate at a decent Italian restaurant that night, and then we went off to an improv comedy show which some students got to participate in. It had its moments, but overall, the show was rather bad, especially the end. It was off to the hotel for bed after this, concluding this day in D.C.
The final day in DC was today. After this day, we would leave the city. Everyone got up to the same stuff as the past few days. The first thing we did was take a boat over to Mt. Vernon. Mt. Vernon is the location of George Washington’s house, and after seeing his and Martha’s tomb, we saw the house. After the boat ride back, we went to Union Station, where Landon ate at Subway and I ate at Johnny Rockets. My grandpa loves Johnny Rockets, but didn’t go there because he thought it would be packed. When I told him the line had five people, it looked like he was going to cry.
The Newseum was next, and it was a personal favourite.
We saw the roof view of DC, the movie about historical moments in reporting, and the Berlin Wall, along with the East German guard tower and the beheaded statue of Vladimir Lenin, first leader of the Soviet Union. We also saw Capitol Hill and the Jefferson Memorial, until our newest stop, the Pentagon City Mall. There, I ate at Auntie Anne's and then spent over $40 on flags. After that, we went to see the Pentagon and 9/11 Memorial, a very sad memorial. There were little “Benches” which pointed towards either the Air Force Memorial or Pentagon, depending on if they died in the Pentagon or on the plane. There, a group of loud kids were running around, which led to many of us being angry, as they were very disrespectful. We then went to the WW2 Memorial, where we left our tour guide Rick, which was a rather sad moment. Next up was the hotel, to go in for the
night.
Friday: The last DC Day. We instantly packed our bags and left the hotel, for Annapolis. We said goodbye to DC, and about two hours later, we were in Annapolis. There, we went to the Naval Academy. We had a grand tour of the facility, and learned a lot about going into the navy. From there, I ate at Jimmy Johns and got ice cream. Then, we left for home. All that happened, as everyone was exhausted, we stopped at Golden Corral for dinner, and made it home around 11ish. Me and my grandpa got off to see my mom waiting for us, and after we got home, my grandpa left for his house, and it was straight to bed to me, which brings my DC adventure to a close.