2024 • East Coast Trip
June 3, 2024 to June 10, 2024
Dating back to 2019, we have always gone to the East Coast over Spring Break—this year, we decided to mix things up by going over Summer Break! We decided to make the change after some frigid Spring Breaks, and we wanted to be able to recover after the trip. As usual, we started in Boston after a redeye flight and went to Salem, went for a walk on the Freedom Trail, and tried to get some sleep on the bus! The next day, we were able to do something that we usually were not able to do over Spring Break: the Duck Boat tour in an amphibious vehicle and a game at Fenway Park. Unfortunately, while singing Sweet Caroline, I was turned into a meme at the game. After Boston, we packed up and went to New York. After a fair amount of time on the coach, we arrived in Brooklyn. While eating lunch, there was a torrential downpour that made things extremely uncomfortable when walking across the bridge. The rain did not last long, but the humidity did! After crossing over into Manhattan, we went to the top of the World Trade Center, had dinner at Puglias, and then made our way toward Times Square. Because they set up a viewing station for the NBA Finals, where we usually take our group picture, we had to scramble to find a new spot—but the picture came out well anyway! For our second day in New York, we went on the BEAST speedboat ride on the Hudson, New York Harbor, and by the Statue of Liberty. It was a lot of fun, and it is something that can only be done during the summer months. In the evening, we went to see Hamilton, as usual.
After New York, we loaded the coach and started toward Washington, DC. Of course, as usual, we made a pit stop in Philadelphia to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall and had lunch at Reading Terminal Market. We also stopped at the Rocky Steps by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. As is tradition, I beat all the kids up the steps—I remain undefeated! Upon arriving in Washington, we visited the World War II Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Korean Memorial, and Vietnam Memorial at dusk and walked along the Reflecting Pool. We had to cancel the photo stop at the White House because traffic around DC was horrendous due to the PRIDE Parade that had been going on earlier in the day. For our final full day in Washington, we went to Arlington National Cemetery, walked around the Tidal Basin, and were able to squeeze in a visit to the White House after being unable to go the previous day. In the evening, we went on the dinner dance cruise on the Potomac, and our students started the party! On the last day, just because we had to be at the airport in the afternoon didn’t mean that we did not have things to do! We visited the US Capitol Building, went into the gallery of the House of Representatives, saw the Supreme Court building, and then made a pit stop at the Marine Corps Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial) before heading over to Dulles Airport. All in all, it was another successful (albeit exhausting) East Coast trip!
