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Sunday June 23rd

Today is the last day of the Citizenship Washington Focus Trip. As we cross the Kansas state line, we reminisce about the past ten days and the thousands of miles. I think I can speak for most of us when I say that I will never forget this trip, the memories or the friends we’ve made along the way. I personally will never forget that not only did Claire fall down the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, but the Jefferson Memorial too. On the way to Washington D.C. the bus was mostly quiet and now, the music and voices are so loud you can’t hear yourself think. Spending ten days in close quarters with 34 kids from Kansas guarantees fast, forever friendships. This morning we boarded the bus at 7:30 (even though Frances, Faith, Gillian, and Aundrea overslept a little) and left Indianapolis. We stopped twice for gas and restroom breaks and we ate lunch in Illinois. We went around the bus this afternoon and shared our favorite moments. JC’s favorite was the FDR memorial, Issac enjoyed Capital Hil
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Friday June 21 and Saturday June 22

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Friday and Saturday were a couple of our more eventful days. We had a time period Friday to do as we please around DC (9AM-4PM). There were a lot of different groups of us all visiting different spots such as the Air and Space Museum, The Holocaust Museum and many other places. Many of us chose to rent a bike or scooters to get around for the day which led to a great time. Afterward we took the Metro across town and then rode the bus to get back to the 4-H Center. We finished the night with a spectacular talent show and crazy dance. Enough said and done Friday was great. Saturday was a little different. We woke up earlier and hit the road. After a small power nap we all stopped and stretched out. After more driving came lunch where we all split up. Most of us went to Chick-fil-a, but Keath, Issac and Taelur went to Buffalo Wild Wings. It was there where they played the songs The Lion Sleeps Tonight and Home on the Range through the JukeBox. As it was JC’s birthday today,
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Thursday June 20th

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Our day was super exciting because we got to sleep in till about 7 am, well at least my group did. We had a full schedule both at the Nation 4-H Center and in Washington itself. Seven kids represented Kansas in our mock Congressional Session, along with multiple others asking questions for the four bills that had hoped to be passed. Aundrea and her group’s bill passed and they were also the only bill to be passed within our session. Her bill was over food insecurity. At the Smithsonian Zoo, my group wrapped up our video that our Delegation leader, Jeddrick, asked us to make in order to hopefully win a $500 grant for our ideas. We also visited: the pandas, which was a huge hit, zebras, orangutans, elephants, and lions just to name a few. Multiple people had their first crepe today and for the ones that had tried crepes before said the crepes here were wonderful! For our Heritage evening we visited the Kennedy Center, Hard Rock Cafe, and the Korean Memorial. At the Kennedy center we go t
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Wednesday June 19th

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On this wonderful Wednesday, the CWF 4H’ers, have seemingly managed to grasp the concept of time and managed to get ourselves onto the bus by  7:45 . The bus ride to the Capitol was occupied by naps and silent mental preparation for the obscene amount of security we’d soon be faced with. As sure as salt dissolves in water, as soon as we were through the line we were faced with security. Then we made our way down the ornate halls and sandstone stairs, past statues, stern and serene to the second line of the day. This line was for our tour and sadly we were not the only ones in it, eventually we made it to the front and into a theater. We were shown a film on the Capitol’s history and then dismissed to the guided portion of the tour. Before the tour started we were handed headphones attached to a small device, this was intended to help us hear our guide once all 40 of us had squeezed into the tourist filled part of the Capitol dome. These devices, of course, had a tendency to cut out.
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Tuesday June 18th

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Wow! What a day today was. We started off with an amazing breakfast and loaded the buses at 7:45 (6:45 Kansas time). As you can probably guess we started off as a pretty quiet group but managed to wake up as the day went on. We first started off with a beautiful tour of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt memorial. This memorial is beautiful representation of how President FDR helped shape and grow America, from the troubles of the stock market crash and even through war, through his 4 terms in office. After The President FDR memorial our group walked to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial with the very symbolic representation of rising out of the mountain. After the memorials we went to Arlington National Cemetery. We took a tour of the cemetery and then saw the ceremony of the changing of the guards in front of the tomb of the unknown soldier. Kansas delegates noticed the perfect symmetry of the headstones. Throughout our travel throughout DC we saw that from each monument you could see
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Monday June 17th

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The morning began far to early for our taste, but the promise of sights to see managed to lure us out of bed and by  7:45  we were all packed onto the bus and ready to lay seige to the city. As we drove through D.C our PA, Jed, filled us in on city history, trivia, and conspiracy theories until we felt like locals in our tour bus slowly driving past tourist attractions while taking pictures. We arrived at M ount Vernon  and met our first line of the day, after it had been determined that we served no threat to anyone but ourselves (we went through security) we were released into the wild of the mansion tour line. The mansion, as it turns out, boasted a great view of the Potomac as well as many chairs that Washington had, allegedly, graced. As I toured Mount Vernon I began to realize just how much we idolize George Washington, and he has became a deity in the midst of the American creation story. Many if us went to visit George Washingtons tomb where he rests with his wife Martha. The
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Sunday June 16

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We started off the day waking up bright and early to look at the Liberty Bell. While we were there the security guard started talking about how the bell isn’t special for the crack but for the meaning of respect people give to it.  He also added a couple facts about it including Kansas. After we went to the Museum about the American Revolution, many people thought it was interesting the native Americans perspective and how they had to decide if they wanted to be for the king or against him. Many people also thought it was interesting how George Washington’s tent is still together. There was a lady that talked about how a seamstress had to reinforce the stitching by hand sewing over every seam. Over all everyone really enjoyed our time in  Philadelphia. On our way to the National 4-H Center, we watched National Treasure and played a couple of brain games. When we arrived at the 4-H Center we started off with an opening session and the guest speaker did a great job. After we went in
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