D.C.

Ashly and I had a great time in Washington D.C. We were met at the airport when we landed in D.C. by two of the Prudential people holding signs up for us. They had spent the whole day waiting for people and we were the last ones to arrive at 530pm. They said Katie Couric walked by them at the airport that day! We got on a huge bus and headed back to the hotel. There were counselors for all the kids. We checked in and immediately Ashly and I were split up and we were pretty much separated from the kids most of the 4 days. First, the parents had an informational meeting and the kids had a get-to-know-you activity. Then we all met for a fancy dinner in the ballroom of the hotel. After dinner, the kids had another activity and the parents had a social on the 14th floor. I stayed up there and mingled for 30minutes, but it got tiresome when you didn't know anyone, so I headed to bed. My room was on the 7th floor by myself. Each of the kids had one roommate. Girls were on the 4th floor and boys were on the 3rd floor. At night they had a security guard on each level so the kids could not sneak off and that they were safe. They had the whole program set up to keep the kids safe so it was not the parents responsibility since we hardly saw the kids!














Sunday morning started out with either a trip to Arlington National Cemetery or to the National Cathedral. You can probably tell by my pictures which one I chose! I had been here once when I was 17, but thought Ashly would really like it. I thought I would be with Ashly here, but we were separated into kids groups and adult groups. I realized I have more fun sight seeing when I have someone I know with, but I made the best of it. I didn't worry about Ashly because ever since she was little she was so good at making friends and I know she would come out of this experience with some good friends after only 4 days! And she did!

To be buried at the cemetery you have to have served for 20 years or more, died in combat, been awarded a medal (like the purple heart, etc). The wives of men (or vice versa these days) can be buried if their husbands qualify. But if the husband chooses to be buried somewhere else, then the wife cannot be buried at Arlington. This is what Ashly and I remember from our tours, I apologize if we got any facts wrong!

Here is Robert E. Lee's home, the original property was his estate.

Here is Kennedy's grave, his wife and his two infant daughters. His grave has an eternal flames that is always going.

Here is a picture of random tombstones. The difference between having the basic, small headstone vs. these big ones is how much you want to pay! Nothing to do with honor or anything like that.

Here is part of a ship (Ashly recalled it was the Spirit?). I cannot remember the name of it.

Beautiful picture of the cemetery and an amphitheater type structure on the grounds. Okay, is anyone else thinking they are glad they don't have to mow the grass around all those headstones...eek!

Memorials to Challenger and Columbia space shuttles.

The guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier. They have a changing of the guard every half hour during the day and every 2 hours at night. It is guarded 24/7. The guard walks 21 steps and clicks his heal. There is strict criteria to become one of these guards....28 inch waist and I can't remember, but there is a height requirement too. They also go through a type of "hazing" ritual where they are put to many tests and only 10% of applicants ever make it through to become a guard there and the job is only for one year.

During the changing of the guard that we witnessed, there was a presentation of a community of spirit award wreath.

Four of the honorees (just like Ashly) were chosen to participate in this.

Here is our wreath. It was pretty neat to not only watch this ceremony, but to know that our group was a part of it was awesome.

Here is the tomb of the unknown soldier from the backside.

After our very HOT (I thought I was going to melt, not used to this type of weather!) morning at Arlington National cemetery we were taken to Hard Rock Cafe. We had the restaurant all to ourselves. The parents sat upstairs and the kids sat downstairs. After the meal the staff had a little party with the kids which included singing and dancing to YMCA!!!

The kids clapping and singing.

Ashly and I at the Hard Rock Cafe.

The rest of that afternoon, the kids went back to the hotel and did project sharing. Ashly had created a powerpoint and printed it out in colored handouts to share with her group. The parents were whisked away to visit the White House and all the outdoor monuments.

Here is the White House.

There was a group of protesters there that day. Our tour guide said everyday something different is going on. Some days there are tons of protesters, some days none.

However, this particular protester, has been there since 1981 protesting pretty much everything. It was explained to us that if you want to protest in front of the White House, you have to get permission and they give you a start time, stop time and day in which you can legally protest. This particular women, Concepcion Thomas, signed up to protest and there was an error in her document because they forgot to fill out an end time. Therefore, the only way her protest is over is if she vacates this spot for longer than 10 minutes. Apparently, she has a place she goes home and showers daily and has someone cover for her. Other than that, she lives off donations and food given to her by people that pass by her. It seems odd to me that we allow that sort of thing to happen in America in front of our White House. Doesn't it seem to be a mockery of our rules...how one can get around the rules with a simple loophole. Silly, but harmless I guess.

This is as close as you can get to the White House without doing the tour, which wasn't on our agenda, but I would LOVE to do that someday.

Me...in front of the White House. Like I said, Ashly was not with me for all my tours. She did get to see these same things the next day.

This is my favorite. It is so beautiful, the water below the Washington Monument.

This is the outside of the Lincoln Memorial.

Picture of the Washington Monument from the top of the Lincoln Monument.

Inside of the Lincoln Monument.

Vietnam Wall. It's so beautiful.

Statues in front of the Vietnam Wall.

Part of the purpose of the design of the Vietnam Wall is that it is reflective so when you are looking at the wall you see yourselves. The intent of seeing yourself in the wall is to make you think of the purpose of that war and realize how many people lost their lives. I took this picture so you could see my reflection in it. It's pretty amazing.

More of the Vietnam Wall.

Another memorial at the end of the Vietnam wall.

This memorial was for the Korean War.

The memorials are all so beautiful and they make you stop and think for a minute what it actually means to be free. It makes me thankful for my freedom, something I take for granted during day to day life.

This is the breathtaking World War II Memorial. It is just beautiful with the water. It was just created in 2004 and was not here when I was in D.C. as a teenager.

There are 4,000 stars on this wall as part of the WWII Memorial and each star represents 1,000 lives that were lost in this war.

I was exhausted after a day of sightseeing in the heat, but we had to go back to the hotel and freshen up for the awards banquet that evening. Our tour guide told us that is why they did not have the kids sightseeing as much as us that day because they didn't want them extremely fatigued by the time they got to the awards banquet! The awards banquet was at the Smithsonian Museum. The museum was closed and we had a private meal and viewing of the museum. Then we had our keynote speaker...Condoleezza Rice and Seth Wescott (Olympic gold medalist for snowboarding). Condoleezza Rice's speech was phenominal. It was surreal meeting her. She took the opportunity to meet each child and take a picture with them. We were told not to take pictures. They will be sending us a DVD of her speech and pictures of the kids and her and the kids recieving their awards that night. They had each kid walk across the stage and they were presented their award. As the child walked across the stage, there were pictures of them on the screen and the short description of what their project was prerecorded. It was alot of kids to go through...2 from each state, 2 from Ireland, Korea, Japan and Tawain. But is was so neat to give each kid their moment in the spotlight and I really enjoyed watching it. The room was just buzzing with energy and there were some mighty proud parents in the audience!!!

P.S. Look how tall Ashly is in that picture. She has heels on and I don't. She is taller than me!!

The next morning the parents had free time at the hotel until 11am and the kids went on a community service project. They went around to a few elementary schools and handed out and read books to young children. Then we had the awards banquet for lunch at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce where they named the 10 Gold winners. Ashly did not win, but it was amazing what the kids who won did and they deserve it whole heartedly. What a great group of kids! And I am so proud of Ashly :)

The kids did the monument touring while that afternoon the parents went to the Smithsonian. There wasn't enough time to see all the museums so I went to the American History, but hardly got through any of it in the little time I had. But I saw the ruby red slippers!

Monday night we had a dinner cruise on the Potomac River. We had entertainment, the staff singing, music and dancing. We were on the upper deck, the kids were on the lower deck. Once again, we were separated, but we all had a great time.

I couldn't believe the parents actually got a groove on!!! The leader of the pact was 72 year old grandma from Hawaii. (She's originally from Japan, on the picture on the left) She got on the microphone and sang in Japanese, and not well either, but she danced the whole night. She was hilarious. Meanwhile, the kids were dancing below us, with much different music!!!

On Tuesday morning it was scheduled for us to see our State Senators. Prudential tried really hard to get everyone an appointment, however, we were some of the unlucky ones who didn't get one. We got to meet with Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar's staff and see their offices.

This is Ashly and Morgan. Morgan is the highschool winner from Minnesota. She lives by Ashby, MN. Her community service project was creating a summer camp for the Indian kids that live nearby.

Ashly in Al Franken's office.

Blaine is Al Franken's office dog. Since Al and his wife fly back to MN every weekend, one of the staff keeps the dog.

Ashly is sitting at Al Franken's desk.

The capital. Isn't it beautiful!

Ashly and Morgan are on the stairs. We took the picture while we were waiting in line to go through security to get into the capital building.

Amy Klobuchar's office gave us passes to see the Gallery of the House and the Senate. Kinda like consellation prizes. "You don't get to meet your senator like everyone else...so here is your prize for coming!!!" It was really exciting and Ashly thought it was really cool too. There was double security. We had already been frisked to get into the building. Then to get into the Gallery, we had to check our camera, all electronics, umbrella's, etc and go through security again. It was pretty surreal being in there I wished I could take a picture, but sometimes you just have to have a memory! We had a nice lunch back at the hotel, then we were off to the airport!

This is Ashly, hanging out and saying goodbye to one of her friends from Las Vegas.

Saying goodbye to some more friends from Kentucky. I spent alot of time chatting with this mom. She was super friendly, and she said I was so much more "down to earth" than many of the parents and she really enjoyed hanging out with me.

Well, we just had a fantastic time and I hope Ashly will think this was a great opportunity. I was so proud of Ashly and it was so fun having a special trip like this with her. I want to show you a few more pictures from Ashly's camera. I will do that soon.