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Today, we woke up at 06:30. We got to breakfast at 07:40 and were on the bus by 08:30. First, we drove to Arlington National Cemetery. We walked and looked at the graves on the way to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. When we got there, we witnessed the Changing of the Guard. The dedication of the guards is amazing to me. Next, we visited the grave of Pierre Charles L'Enfant. I did not know how important his ideas were to the building of our nation's capital. Next, we walked back through the cemetery. We learned what each of the coins on graves means: a penny means you knew the person, a nickel means you trained with the person, a dime means you fought with the person, and a quarter means you were with the person when they died. Next, we went to JFK's grave. We learned more about who he was and what he did for our country. We also had a great view of the Custer House. We did not go in the house, but we learned about its history and who lived there. We then left the cemetery and went to the Iyo Jima memorial. We learned about the two myths surrounding the statue. We took pictures with it before leaving. Next, we went to lunch at a mall. We ate then had time to shop. I did not buy anything. After lunch, we went to Mount Vernon. When we got there, we went to a 4D show about George Washington. It was cool and I thought it did a great job illustrating George Washington and his role in the Revolution. Next, we walked to tour the Mount Vernon grounds. We saw the gardens and the animals. The piglets were adorable. Mount Vernon really was a fully functioning city. Next, we went to tour George Washington's house. It was beautiful, but it was also a little surprising that someone that important lived in a house that today wouldn't even be considered a mansion. After the house, we went to the farm. Unfortunately, they did not have any work for us to do. We looked at the crops and spoke with a man who told us about George Washington's crop rotation cycle. Then, we learned about his system of threshing wheat.
It really was ingenious. The bus did not have space for us, so we walked the forest trail back up to the Education Center. We got to see George Washington's teeth. We stopped at the gift shop before leaving Mount Vernon. For dinner, we went to Nando's in Alexandria. It was good. After dinner, we went on a ghost tour. Honestly, it was a little underwhelming. It was really informative and I enjoyed learning about the history of Alexandria, but it lacked the ghost part. After the tour, we drove back to the hotel.
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