SLI Trip II

So I promised that I would post some more about my trip to Washington. It was so much fun and we did so much stuff in only 2 1/2 days. It was a crazy trip. Tuesday we traveled up there all day and that was fun, a long ride but I'm used to that on a church trip. Wednesday our trip finally got started. That morning we arrived at the Arlington National Cemetary very early around 8:30 I believe, but I'm not sure. We went to the Tomb of the Unknown Soilder and we also saw the memorials to the Challenger Space Shuttle as well as the Iranian Rescue Mission Monument. Before we left we went to he Kennedy grave site. We went to the Holaucost Museum for about an hour and a half. We were rushing to get to our appointment at the Capitol, so while we were in the museum my youth pastor went to McDonalds and got sandwhiches for everyone it was a great deal and we ended up only spending 2 bucks for lunch which was great!!. Then we went to Ander Crenshaw's office to meet up with his interns so that we could take our tour of the Capitol. I love being in the capitol and its one of my favorite things to do in DC. There is so much history in that one building and all the decisions that are made there, I just love it. After our tour we had a meeting with Representative Crenshaw and I think he was abour 20 minutes late but that was okay because we were really working around his schedule. He was great he told us his testimnoy and what it is like to be a Christian in Washington. After our meeting with Representitve Crenshaw, we went to the National Cathedral which is a beautiful building. We prayed for our nation and leaders while we were there and we also attended their Wednesday night worship service. Now I am a baptist so it was slightly weird for me because the National Cathedral is an acting Epicopalan church so that means they don't have Bibles, well the who attend people don't, and they read out of The Book of Common Prayer. Basically when I left I was glad for my church and pastor. After that we went to The Outback for dinner and back to our hotel. We were back at our hotel by about 9pm which is really early for a church trip.

Thursday was equally as busy, however Thursday was also a funny day and started out very hectic. We were able to leave the hotel a little later than usual becuase we were not meeting the Ambassador until 10:30. However on our way into Washington our bus got into 2 accidents. Now accidents are not typical on a bus trip usually busses break down for us but we don't get into accidents. Well here is the story of the accidents. We had just gotten into DC and a moving van got really close to our bus and our bus I guess hit the van's mirror knocking it askew. The bus didnt' knock the mirrror off it just messed it up. So then the driver of the van gets really upset and wants the police to come and everything. So we had to wait about 30 minutes and then we finally got on our way. So here comes the funny part we are going around the block to get back to the street that we needed to be on and as we are going around the corner this car comes up on our right and the bus driver couldn't see it as he was turning right and we ran over the car's tire and scraped the side a little bit. We were basically all in shock, we couldn't believe that we had gotten in 2 accidents in one hour. So the same policeman came and our bus driver was going to get a ticket but he ended up not getting one which was good. So we finally made it to Ambassador Vitu's house and we were all shocked becuase they had "tea" for us which ended up being our lunch. The ambassador was really cool and he told us a lot about Fiji and what it is like to be an ambassador for his country in the U.S. After that we left and went straight to the White House complex and went to the Eisenhower Executive office building. It was so cool while we were waiting to go in one of the White House interns came out and told us that we had to wait because the President was on his way to a meeting so we had to wait a little bit before we could go in. So we finally made it to the Indian Treaty Room where we had a briefing with Tim Goeglein. Through the interns we found out that President Bush and Condilezza Rice were on the same floor as us in a different meeting. When we left, I got to ride in the same elevator thta Presdient Bush and Secretary of State Rice rode in just a few minutes before. It was so cool!! I also saw the door that the President walks through from the West Wing. It was so cool. Then we walked over to the White House and took some pictures. Finally that night we went to Georgetown and ate dinner at the Sequoia Restaurant. Friday morning we had a meeting with the Family Research Council, which was interesting but I was kinda falling asleep because I was really tired. After that we went to this little souvenir shop but all they had were T-Shirts and other knick knack junk so I didn't by anything. The shop happened to be by Ford's Theatre and the Petersen House, which is where Abraham Lincoln died, so a friend of mine and I went into the Petersen House becuase it basically only takes about 5 minutes to go through. Then we headed back to home. All in all it was so much fun and I want to go back soon!!