At the end of August, fifteen Upward Bound (UB)students and staff were able to travel to our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C.!  Ayden Wilroy of Rock Port, Mo., was one of these lucky students.  It was a wonderful educational experience.  We kept very busy, as we do on any UB trip!  Our first full day, students visited a lot of national museums and monuments, including the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the WWII Memorial, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and more.  Then, the group traveled to see the White House.  Unfortunately, we were only able to view the building from the street.
The next day, we visited Ford’s Theater, where President Lincoln was shot.  The museum there has lots of interesting information about President Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth, and the events of the day the President was shot.  We then walked down the street and saw all of our presidents at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum.  After lunch at Hard Rock Café, we continued our busy day by visiting the National Archives, where the original Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are kept and preserved.  There are so many wonderful historical documents to view at the National Archives!  Our final stop of the day was the National Holocaust Museum.  This museum was an excellent resource in learning about the tragic events that happened before, during, and after World War II.  Visiting was such a valuable experience.  After dinner that night, we made another surprise visit to the White House to see it all lit up!