Day 1 in DC

Another DC trip, another 3:30am wake up text. But this year, everyone was already up. They were told to be in Terminal A at Logan by 5:30 but when I get there at 5:15, they are all there early. By 5:30 they are all through security and at the gate. Plenty of time to grab breakfast before our 6:35 Southwest flight to BWI. 

We walked off the plane in Baltimore and got in our SuperShuttles to DC, dropped our bags at the Hilton Garden Inn, and then got a ride to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum just before it opened at 10. We took two hours to go through the permanent exhibit. As always, it was a powerful experience for our students. 

(This is the rail car you walk through)

From there we walked in a warm rain 

to the Museum of the American Indian where we had an excellent lunch - 

though the cafeteria was crowded - and an hour to enjoy the museum. Highlight: retrospective of Kay Walking Stick's art - the evolution of her diptych style. 

From there, we took our longest walk of the day, thankfully without rain, over Capitol Hill and out Maryland Ave, a beautiful neighborhood of townhouses, past Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene's statue, 

to the Atlas Theater. Here we were treated to the first matinee of a new play put on by a new theater company - the Mosaic Theater. The play, Unexplored Interior (This is Rwanda: The Beginning and the End of the Earth), was brilliant and challenging and, in the words of our students, mind blowing. Along with the USHMM visit, this has prepared us for the antigenocide work we will do tomorrow at the conference. 

From there we walked to Busboys and Poets, the best restaurant we have found in DC, where we had a great meal and were joined by our friends and heroes Carl Wilkens and HHS grad Mackenzie Hamilton, and the whole STAND leadership crew. 

Finally we walked back to the hotel and checked into our rooms. I think everyone pretty quickly collapsed after the long day. This was a near perfect day with a precision and focus that the students might describe as military. To the conference tomorrow!