Buses C/D on 495

Buses C and D are on 495, about 20/25 minutes away from Stony Brook.

9:00 travel update

As of 9:00, Bus A is at the 90/495 interchange in Westborough, MA; Bus B is at the 90/84 interchange in Sturbridge, MA; Bus C/D is at the 91/84 interchange in East Hartford, CT.

See you soon!

8:00 travel update

Good Evening Parents/Guardians!

As of 8:00pm, Bus A is in Hartford at the 84/91 interchange, Bus B is in Southington, CT and Buses C & D are in Milford, CT.

Thursday/Friday

Thursday was an intense day.  We started early: 7am breakfast, and hit the road to get to Arlington National Cemetery for our 9:15 wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  The wreath laying takes place during the changing of the guards (see below), in front of the tomb.  As an aside, the three Eighth Grade teams, Victory, Peace and Valor take their names from the side of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Students who were interested in the honor of laying the wreath at the tomb were asked to write an essay.  Essays were read by teachers (blindly, without names), and the following four eighth graders were selected (see picture below): McKenna W., Haylee W., Jenn B. and Morgan W.  Our Stony Brook students represented Westford proudly: all were engaged, respectful and attentive.  We were so impressed!  I will post a video soon.

Afterwards, we headed to downtown Washington to make our Holocaust Memorial appointments.  Again, students were respectful, engaged and attentive.  I received multiple complements on our students' behavior from museum security guards and chaperones from other schools!  Unfortunately, pictures are not permitted, so this is a picture of the lobby.  You might ask students about the elevator ride, Anne Frank, the 3-story room of faces of victims, the box car, or the survivors' videos at the end.

After lunch at National Place (an upscale food court with vouchers), we headed to a souvenir shop, a brief photo opp at The White House,and finally to the boat cruise, which disembarked in Southeast DC on the Potomac River.  There was an outstanding DJ and host, a lovely buffet dinner, lots of dancing, and a teacher dance-off between Ms. Campbell, Ms. Donegan and Mr. Maly.

After the exciting boat cruise, we hit several more monuments, including the Jefferson Memorial (Mr. G.'s personal favorite), FDR Memorial, the newly constructed MLK Memorial and the Iwo Jima/US Marine Corps Memorial.

On Friday, we had breakfast at the hotel, roomchecks, and boarded the bus for the Newseum at 8:15 - and arrived promptly for their 9:00am opening.  Ask students about the 4-D (yes, 4-D) movie, the amazing view of Pennsylvania Avenue and the Capitol Building, the six-story glass elevator, making a newscast, the Berlin Wall, Pulitzer-Prize-Winning photos, the 9/11 exhibit, the giant news helicopter in the lobby, and about all the news!  (FYI: the Newseum is dedicated to news and The First Amendment).

At 11:00, we hit the road, bound for Westford!  Here we are traveling over the Tappan Zee Bridge, avoiding the traffic we hit heading south on the George Washington bridge.

Thank you to all the chaperones for their energy, excitement, planning and willingness to leave their families for a week to chaperone the trip.  Thank you to parents and guardians for your support of this trip.  And thank you to our amazing students, for their enthusiasm, willingness to be a lifelong learner and maturity they demonstrated on this trip.  It truly takes a village, and what an amazing example of that fact this trip has been.  I feel fortunate to have shared it with 219 others and this amazing school and community.

Respectfully,

Steve Guditus

Stony Brook School Assistant Principal 

6:45 travel update

We are continuing on, hitting some Friday afternoon/evening get-out-of-town traffic. Bus A is in Fairfield, CT; Bus B is in Danbury, CT; Buses C/D are in Greenwich, CT.

5:00 travel update

Hello! We are having a smooth tide home so far...we've opted to travel via the Tappan Zee Bridge for our ride north. Buses A/B are in Montvale, NJ; Buses C/D are near Union, NJ.

We'll keep you posted!

2:45 travel update

After a lovely lunch at the Delaware House rest stop on I-95, we have continued on our journey home.

Lunch options consisted of a healthy sandwich shop, pizza, Baja Fresh Express and Cinnabon, among others.

Buses A/B are together, heading through Mount Holly, New Jersey. Buses C/D are currently heading over the Delaware Memorial Bridge.

Our next stop will likely be for dinner in Connecticut. We'll keep you posted!

12:30 travel update

Good Afternoon! We had a fabulous time at The Newseum this morning. We arrived at 9:00 (opening time) and students had two hours to explore. Highlights included the 9/11 exhibit, 50 years of Pulitzer-Prize-Winning Photos (and their stories), Make-Your-Own Newscast (complete with a green screen), a piece of the Berlin Wall, and a 4-D (yes, 4-D) movie. For sure, a highlight of the trip for many!

Currently, Bus A is near Fallston, MD; Bus B is near Abington, MD; buses C and D are near Laurel, MD.

We plan to stop soon at a rest area for lunch soon. We will you posted of our driving progress through this blog.

National Cathedral, Capitol and Smithsonians

The National Cathedral

Seats for The President and senators

After our morning excursion to The National Zoo (part of the Smithsonian complex - see below), we made a visit to the beautiful and impressive National Cathedral in Northwest DC.  Built in "only" 83 years (many medieval cathedral took hundreds of years to build), the building is formally an Episcopalian Cathedral, and has an extensive network of mini chapels, ranging from a military chapel to seats reserved for The President and members of The Senate.

The National Mall - Capitol Building

Next, we headed downtown to The National Mall (the green grassy area shown, not a commercial center).  If you know DC, you will recognize the area, and may remember that various Smithsonians line The National Mall.  Our photo opp as a group was much closer than this - and man, was it cooking out there during the photo - at least the low to mid 90s.

Next, we hit up some Smithsonian museums.  We headed to the Air and Space, then Natural History, then The National Sculpture Garden and finally The American History Smithsonian.  Based on the pictures below, can you guess who was an American History  teacher?

Smithsonian Museum of Air and Space

Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

Smithsonian Museum of American History

A picture of "Old Glory" - the original that flew at Fort McHenry in Baltimore

The counter from Woolworth's in Greensboro, NC

Dorothy's Ruby Slippers

Kermit The Frog

After our trek down The Mall, we headed to the mall (specifically, the Capitol City Mall) for dinner.

Dinner at the Capitol City Mall

 















Next up, we plan to head back downtown (we are currently eating dinner in Northern Virginia) to see the World War II Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, Jefferson Memorial and Korean War Memorial.

Zoo and Embassy Row

Orangutangs climbing their tight rope

Veiled Chameleon

Pandas, orangutangs and lizards, oh my!  After having a lovely, hearty breakfast at the Dulles Marriott of all-you-can-eat eggs, homefries, bacon, waffles, fruit, OJ and cereal, we loaded the bus and headed for downtown DC.  We picked up our WorldStrides DC-certified tourguides (one per bus), who are our go-to people as we traverse the city during the day.  Tour guides provided us with some information about the zoo, and then students were permitted to explore the zoo.  Many students immediately headed to see the pandas - and were we in for a treat. 

One of two pandas eating bamboo

Frequently, the pandas are asleep, but because we arrived around 9:30am, the pandas were up, awake and eating bamboo.  Just a heads up: many comments went something like this: "Awwwwww!  He is so adorable!  I want one for home!"  I wish you the best of luck.  Other highlights included the ape house, the elephant colony, the lion den and the lizard lounge.

Embassy of Paraguay

Students had a wonderful time for approximately an hour, seeing a range of animals.  A great time truly was had by all.

Next, we head went on a driving tour of Embassy Row, en route to the National Cathedral.  As we drove down Embassy Row, students were interested to hear about nations purchasing property that serves as a mini "satellite" of their home country, right here in Washington, DC.  Above, you can see a picture of the Embassy of Paraguay.

Ball Game

What a great time we had on Tuesday evening! The game was delayed due to thunderstorms, for 90 minutes. As a result, we headed to the Pentagon City Mall to eat dinner...we headed to Nationals Park for an 8:25 start time. While there, students had a great time, with outstanding seats and a great view. We saw about an hour of the game, and then made the trek west to Dulles Airport Marriott. There, WorldStrides reps met us and got students easily into their room for a good (albeit short) night's sleep. A good, but long, first day!

Vince Lombardi

Unfortunately, we hit a big snag - huge traffic jam in the the Bronx due to an accident on the George Washington Bridge.  We are wrapping up a very late lunch at the Vince Lombardi Rest Stop in Ridgewood, NJ...and are hitting the road once again.  We will likely go directly to Nationals Park...revised ETA of 7:30.  All are in good spirits, albeit a bit soggy from the rain between the bus and the rest area.

Milford

We made it, safe and sound, to Milford, CT for a quick restroom and stretch break.  Students are excited and so well behaved.  We ran into a group from Stoneham Middle School, who are also going to the Nationals game tonight.  We plan to stop again in New Jersey for lunch sometime after Noon.  Off we go!

Parent/Student Meeting: Wednesday, May 22, 2013

We will hold a mandatory parent/student meeting for any 8th grader attending the Washington DC trip on Wednesday, May 22, 2013 from 7-8pm.  At this meeting, we will share a finalized itinerary, an overview of the trip, and share packing do's and don'ts. 

If you cannot attend this meeting, please contact Mr. Guditus prior to the meeting at sguditus@westfordk12.us or 978-692-2708 x5014.