by JESSICA KUIL
SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT FOR THE OGDEN REPORTER
After years of fundraising and weeks of packing, it was finally time for the Class of 2004 to take the trip of a lifetime.
Everyone arrived early Saturday, April 17. The loaders quickly put our pop and suitcases under the bus, and at 8:10 a.
m. we hit the road. The buses were abuzz as we headed to our first stop, West Branch, Iowa.
Many card games were won and lost and many naps were taken before we pulled into our first destination.
West Branch is the childhood home and gravesite of former President Herbert Hoover. A movie on the life and times of Pres.
Hoover started the tour.
Crista Jens said, "The movie was very educational. I learned a lot about his life.
"
Touring the museum and Hoover's tiny boyhood home followed.
Next stop scheduled was Gettysburg, PA, a long overnight ride away, a bit uncomfortable at times, but many found their way to a very cozy spot on the bus floor.
We woke up very early the next morning in Pennsylvania.
After freshening up and eating at Breezeway, we continued to Gettysburg.
There, the temperature was in the mid-70's and climbing. Everyone was excited to sit in a cool building and listen to Abraham Lincoln impersonator, Jim Getty.
After a very informational speech, it was time for photos. During the picture session, Verlaine Faber decided to stump the very intelligent Jim Getty. She asked him how many U.
S. cities are named after him (Lincoln)?
Pausing for a moment, Mr.
Getty answered, "I don't know. Five maybe." (The correct answer is 24.
)
Next we visited the Civil War wax museum and the Park Service Visitor Center and Museum.
Some visited the Eisenhower farm and there was plenty of time to look around the museum and the national cemetery close by. We ate a quick lunch and then walked over to the Cyclorama, a large painting in the round, 356' long and 26' wide.
The Battle of Gettysburg is depicted at the Cyclorama with the use of effective lighting and sound.
THE GETTYSBURG GROUNDS
A walking tour of the National Military Park followed. The Gettysburg grounds are full of monuments, railroad tie fences and other memorabilia.
Most of the students chose to climb to the top of a tower for the best view of Gettysburg.
It was 121 steps up, and we all realized we were not in the best shape of our lives.
At 4 p.
m., it was time to leave for the nation's capital. Enroute to Washington, D.
C., we learned where Camp David was located in the mountains. We finally arrived in D.
C. at approximately 6 p.m.
, all exhausted and dirty, but we had to eat before we could shower. After dinner and showers most of the students took a walking tour to the Capitol.
After a short night's rest, we awoke to temperatures in the upper 70's.
At breakfast we were informed that the Capitol would be having an evacuation drill that morning, so we had to hurry over for a quick tour of the building. Security was tight, but we all made it through.
We saw the statuary room, the rotunda, and the site where George Washington was originally supposed to be buried.
He is, of course, buried at his homesite on the Potomac, Mount Vernon. Because we finished our tour early, our fearless leaders decided to try to get us in on an actual Supreme Court hearing. Mr.
Reimers assured us we would have to wait only a few minutes. Those few minutes turned into about two hours, but it was worth it.
The case we saw involved whether a jury or a judge should decide who is condemned to die in a criminal case.
Later, we went to the Supreme Court cafeteria for a quick lunch and returned to the Supreme Court chambers to hear a lecture.
Following that the big group split up. One half went with Mr.
Nelson and Mr. Reimers to the Botanical Gardens, the Library of Congress, and the Air and Space Museum. Mr.
Friesen led the other group to the National Gallery of Art.
After our separate tours we met up to watch a 3-D IMAX movie in the Air and Space Museum. A full day of walking and touring was over so we returned to our hotel rooms to get freshened up for our night cruise on the Spirit of Washington.
A CRUISE ON THE POTOMAC
The cruise on the Potomac was beautiful. We spent the night with a couple of high schools, and we kept the pop guy very busy!
Bright and early the next morning several students got extra dressed up because we ate breakfast with Senator Charles Grassley and his wife Barbara, as well as Representative Tom Latham.
They were both a lot of fun to listen to. Both were quick witted and they had lots of fun with each other.
Following breakfast we met our tour guides for the day and began our tour of Washington.
Our first stop was the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial. It was full of pools of water and waterfalls because he loved water.
One student, Kendall Fosse, found that when you stand on a ledge near water and take a picture pretending to fall in the water, there's a chance that you will fall in, and he did.
THE WALL
The next stop was the Vietnam War Veterans Memorial - The Wall - where class representative Scott Pierce laid a wreath in memory of Spec. 5 Dennis Kouhns, a 1964 OHS graduate who died from deep fragment wounds when his unit came under enemy attack, Jan.
30, 1968.
At the Korean War Veterans Memorial, Kelsey Nation, student body president, laid a wreath in memory of Pvt. Dean Lass who was killed Oct.
28, 1951.
Both memorials were touching for all.
We found ourselves at the Albert Einstein statue after touring the memorials.
There we took the first of many class pictures. We drove to the Kennedy Center for a quick tour. Curious, Mr.
Nelson tried to sneak behind a red velvet rope, but was shooed away by a nice old lady.
Next we picked up our box lunches from the ESPN Zone. After that, we walked to the White House for our tour of the inside.
The tour itself was fairly short. We were able to see only five of the many rooms. Mr.
Nelson found out quickly that searching the door frames for secret passageways is a big no no with security.
The National Archives was our next stop. There we saw the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
Then we walked to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History where we viewed dinosaur bones and the famous Hope Diamond.
The national Washington Cathedral was next. The ceilings were taller than most 10 story buildings.
Both Pres. Woodrow Wilson and Helen Keller are buried there. Our tour concluded and we returned to our hotel to get ready to see the musical, Children of Eden, at Ford's Theater.
Everyone enjoyed the performance. There wasn't a drowsy eye in the house.
The next morning we loaded up the buses, and drove over to Lafayette Park to take pictures in front of the White House.
We then walked down the street to the White House visitor's center.
HOLOCAUST MUSEUM
Finally it was time to visit the Holocaust Museum. We were all handed a small booklet at the beginning of the tour with the life story of a person who was a victim of the Holocaust.
As you walk through the museum, each floor is a different time period and you follow along in your book to see what was happening to your person during that time.
At the end of the tour you flip to the last page to see if your person lived or died.
It was a very emotional experience.
Stephanie Willett said, "I thought it was very neat because it showed us things that we never heard about before, like the painful medical experiments. It really personalized it."
THE AWAKENING
We ate lunch at The Awakening.
We were able to get both Chris Miller and Erin Good to the top of the statue. After lunch we picked up our tour guides again and went to the U.S.
Marine Corp Memorial (Iwo Jima). While there we were all stopped by a veteran who had fought at Iwo Jima and Pearl Harbor. He told us a lot about Iwo Jima.
Then it was time for our tour of Arlington Cemetery. It was a warm 87º that day with plenty of sunshine. Visiting the cemetery was a very moving experience.
We approached the Tomb of the Unknowns early and we were told that a military ceremony would be taking place at the time our OHS Class of 2004 was to present its wreath.
The class officers decided to stay for the ceremony and lay the wreath afterwards. The program that preceded ours was a very important one.
Soldiers from the five branches of the military (Coast Guard included) marched up the stairs behind the tomb; then came the U.S. Army Band, followed by the color guard.
A short program featured the top military officer of Greece (equivalent to the head of our U.S. Army), who laid a wreath on the tomb.
It was an amazing event.
After that ceremony, class officers Jenny Christensen, Jessica Kuil, Katie Moses, and Jamie Bargman presented the OHS wreath.
We were a little late for dinner but that didn't stop us.
We ate at Phillips Flagship Restaurant where Mr. Reimers ate a good three plates of clams. It was a great dinner, but we quickly finished so we could leave to watch a military pageant on the Ellipse.
The pageant lasted a half hour or so. Then we took a night tour of Washington.
Our first stop was the Lincoln Memorial.
Bus Driver Bob pointed out that some of the movie Forrest Gump had been produced there. Cheers for Forrest erupted on the bus.
Next we took a subway ride to the Jefferson Memorial.
Then it was back to our hot el.
We awoke early Thursday because it was our last day in the beautiful city of Washington, D.C.
We ate breakfast at the Hard Rock Café, and started our trek to Philadelphia.
In Philadelphia we visited the new National Constitution Center. There we saw a short play about the Constitution.
Our groups split. Bus two went off for a carriage ride through historic Philadelphia, while the others visited the Liberty Bell.
PHILLY CHEESE STEAKS
Dinner, real life Philly Cheese Steaks, was at the terrace on top of the National Constitution Center.
It was finally time to leave for New York City. Two hours later we could see the skyline of Manhattan. We waited patiently in front of the hotel for our luggage to be taken in before jumping off of the bus and into the unique smell of New York.
We got settled into our rooms and walked to Mama Sbarros for a nice buffet dinner.
The real excitement came after dinner . .
. it was time to get ready for the Phantom of the Opera. It was a nice evening as we left our hotel, and we all became very excited as the sign for the Majestic Theater came into view.
We had amazing seats and the show was fantastic.
"I liked all of the costumes and the Masquerade scene. The actors can all sing very well and very high, it's crazy," said Kelsey Nation.
Following the show we took lots of pictures and ate pizza, New York City style.
It was Friday morning, and time for our long day of touring New York City. We ate a buffet breakfast at Mama Sbarros before picking up our tour guides.
The tour guide on my bus went to school with Regis Philbin's daughters, had her senior prom at the Plaza Hotel, and was currently starring in an American Girl Play.
She showed us the many sites in New York where movies were taped. Perhaps one of the most surprising facts we learned was that the Soup Nazi on the sitcom Seinfeld, was a real guy.
We drove past his restaurant and learned he is only open five months a year and is a really strict guy.
Our guide also took us to Central Park. We walked to a mosaic in honor of the late John Lennon, where we saw a young man laying rose petals in the shape of John Lennon's signature.
It was quite a site to see.
ON NATIONAL TV
After our tour of movie sites we headed over to the CBS Early Show. There we all broke out our Hello Ogden signs and hopped on each others shoulders.
On the show that day was Iowa Hawkeye Robert Gallery, who later in the week was the No. 2 draw in the NFL draft. Cheers were led for the Hawkeyes by none other than Mr.
Nelson.
When the show ended, TV producer Steve Cohen came out and brought us CBS Early Show anchors Renee Syler and Gretchen Carlson. They were both very nice and answered all of our questions and gave us lots of advice.
After a quick tour of the studio we left for the Empire State Building, from where we got a great view of the city.
We grabbed our sack lunches from under the bus and headed over to the Staten Island Ferry where we would get a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty.
QUEEN MARY 2
Much to our surprise, very near our ferry was the Queen Mary 2 on her maiden voyage.
The luxury liner was heavily guarded by helicopters and police boats because of terrorist threats.
Next, we met up with another set of guides. The tour led us through lower Manhattan where we were able to see Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange, and Ground Zero.
I think Courtney Swanson said it best when she commented, "It (Ground Zero) was a really shocking site. I got really choked up there. It's just a huge hole.
It's hard to believe there were thousands of people . . .
it's also really hard to believe that the towers were once really tall."
Our tour of New York City concluded with two full hours of shopping at the South Street Seaport. This area of town was not open to cars.
Store after store lined the street. Many students stumbled upon a market where they were able to practice their haggling skills.
NEW YORK CITY RUSH HOUR!
Then around 5:15, it was time to leave New York City and head back to Ogden. As we left we got one last thrill from New York City, rush hour!
The ride home was a quiet one.
If you weren't sleeping you were watching a movie or listening to music. It was quite a shock to come back home to the chilly rainy Iowa weather.
This trip was a huge success and the experience of a lifetime.
On behalf of the senior class of 2004 we want to thank Mr. Reimers, Mr. Nelson, our chaperones and especially Mr.
Friesen for all they did for us on this trip.
We really want to thank Mr. Friesen for starting this trip 33 years ago and continuing it.
We will never forget you or this trip.
PHOTO IDENTIFICATION
Over the cobblestones they rode. Kyle Mortensen, left, Katherine Lawler, Susan Bosma, Stephanie Willett and Jenna Thompson enjoyed a horse and carriage ride through the historic streets of Philadelphia.
The Ogden seniors also saw the Liberty Bell.
©The Ogden Reporter 2004
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