During the Presidential Inaugural in 2009, there were millions of people on the National Mall and the surrounding areas. At this same time, our DECA chapter was starting some new businesses as a part of the class. They had all kinds of clothing, scarves, and jackets. We thought it would be cool to have matching jackets with the trip information on the back as an additional souvenir. We decided on red and black jackets and we thought we looked cool all in the same stuff. I still have mine somewhere but it made a statement. During the whole day, we were in touch with people back in Aurora. A couple of blogs ago you even got the taste of our calls. We were talking to a Social Studies teacher and he was giving us grief about how warm and dry he was and could see everything from the comfort of his classroom. The best part was when he said that he saw us on TV. We were non-believers and were laughing it off. As he was more specific we realized that he actually had seen us. He told us were wearing our jackets. We were still skeptical until he said that I was leaning on a tree and my Daughter was sitting at the base of the tree with an angry look on her face. Yep! you are looking at us! We looked around and finally found the camera that was showing and so we waved but he said they cut away before the wave. It is sometimes frustrating and draining to take kids on trips. I wouldn’t change a thing about any of them. We have seen everything from Arlington Cemetary to the Magic Kingdom. We visited the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and Franz Kafka’s home in Prague. We have explored Mesa Verde to Bregenz Austria. All of these and hundreds more locations. I still talk about being a counselor at Outdoor Lab when I was in school and I know these students will have stories to last a lifetime. I have been honored to share the trip with them.
