DISCLOSURE: This post contains a LOT of A.J. & Jenny end stage puberty. Please bear with all pictures 😉
4 days after A.J. & I graduated high school, we had the opportunity of a lifetime. A 12 day trip to Gettysburg, Mount Vernon, Daytona Beach, and Orlando for $200 each. Too good to be true, right? Actually, the trip was with our FFA Chapter. We had been active members all 4 years of high school and helped with fundraising, so we got to take this trip for all our hard work. Now, some of you might be thinking, 2 eighteen year old’s in love taking a 2 week trip, your parents must have been CRAZY! But don’t worry, there were 5 chaperones on the trip, and THREE of them consisted of A.J.’s parents and my mother. Yes, we really whooped it up those 2 weeks.
Anyways, the details. This trip was unforgettable. When planning the trip, our FFA adviser had to make sure the trip was educational to sell it to the school board. So our trip started in Gettysburg. We toured the town and battlefields of Gettysburg, and even caught a “ghost” tour (it was quite comical, but the guide was sure there were ghosts in Gettysburg).
Our next stop on the trip was Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home. The mansion was incredible, and we got to see where the slaves stayed, as well as view the beautiful lake. We then ventured to Arlington National Cemetery. If you are ever there, make sure you stay long enough to see the changing of the guard. It was such a humbling experience.
We finally arrived in Washington D.C. for a couple of days. D.C. was definitely my favorite part of the trip. It is so surreal getting to see so many sights that you see on the news everyday, but in real life.
We woke up early the next day and headed to tour our nations capital. In the afternoon, we had the opportunity to visit the Smithsonian, the air and space museum, and the Thomas Jefferson Library.
While we were in D.C., we also had the opportunity to visit the national zoo, as well as the National Cathedral. The cathedral was absolutely breathtaking!
I wish we would have had an entire week to explore everything, because I know we just brushed the surface.
We then took off for Florida (we slept on a charter bus) and arrived in the morning at Daytona Beach. It was freezing cold and rainy. We headed to Daytona Speedway in the afternoon and were planning on taking a tour of the track, but due to the rain it was unsafe, so we just got a little peak.
Our next stop on the trip was Orlando, Florida. I had never been to Disney World, and we had a hopper pass for all the parks (Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot), so we go the full experience. We spent our three days there roller-coasting and exploring everything Disney had to offer! A couple of my favorites from Disney were Beauty and the Beast LIVE in Hollywood Studios, the night time light shows at Magic Kingdom and Epcot, and Mount Everest in Animal Kingdom.
We then started our 25 hour long bus ride home (after 12 days with a group of high schoolers, you can’t wait to get home!). However, we were slightly delayed when our bus broke down in Ohio and we had to wait while the bus company sent another bus out to pick us up.
This trip was one of my best memories from high school, and I’m so excited that I got to experience it all with A.J. I dream of the day that we get to go back to D.C., and someday when we get to take our kids to Disney World!
