Well, we arrived in DC right on schedule. A little turbulence but not too bad. Our guide, Rita met us at Reagan Airport and helped us find our coach bus and driver. First stop, a much needed and appreciated lunch at the Capitol Visitor's Center. We were given three meal choices and readily sat down to eat. As Mr. Nickel commented, it was nice to be still for awhile. We were given some time to look around after eating. Several of the chaperones were lucky enough to visit the Senate and House of Representative Chambers without having previously obtainign tickets. We then headed off for our guided tour of the actual Capitol. The sound quality in the earphones was much better this so we had a more interesting tour. We walked through the tunnel under 1st Street to gain entrance to the Library of Congress. This building contains very beautiful artwork, painted glass, and mosaic tiles. We were not able to gain access to the reading room, but did see T. Jefferson's book collection. We walked to the Supreme Court Building then boarded our bus to head to several war memorials. We started with the World War II Memorial where we learned over 400,000 American soldiers died during WWII. This number is represented by a wall which contains many stars...each one standing for 100 lives. We walked around the perimeter and observed all of our United States represented. The water feature adds to the feeling evoked from this memorial. The Vietnam War Memorial was our next stop...known as 'the wall.' Rita pointed out that the design of this memorial came from intense competition. A woman of 21 years won the honor and did an incredible job. Rita compared the wall to a healing scar in the earth. Each soldier's name that died in this war is etched in granite. A short stop at the Lincoln Memorial followed. All were able to get within 5 feet of this incredible tribute to our 16th President. Then onto the Korean War Memorial. As Eric Hamilton pointed out, you could study each soldier walking through the rice paddies and infer how each was feeling...we saw fierceness, perserverence, and many other emotions in their faces and body language. Our dinner provided us with an opportunity to do some great people watching! We had food vouchers and could choose our meals from several different places. After this we ventured to the Pentagon Memorial. Students seemed quite taken withd solemn place. Many students sat on 'wings' quietly on their own. You could plainly see where the airplane had flown into one of the 5 sides of the Pentagon. After this we bussed to the Airforce Memorial. What a view... Finally made it to the Hyatt Place and got settled in...more tomorrow.