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!