Today's lectures covered the French Resistance and the navy's role in D-Day. I have always made fun of the French and they are highly criticized for being collaborationists during the war, but this institute has given me a new insight on the French because the average citizen was basically being held hostage by the Nazis. The lecturer said we have typically looked at the French during the war as the good french, the bad French, and the poor French.
After lunch, today was the big day: the White House reception. We had no idea who would be there officially from the government, but it was still a White House reception in the Eisenhower Executive Building, which is part of the White House complex and connected via tunnel. The reception was held in the Indian Treaty Room, which used to be the naval library. No Indian treaties were signed (and later violated) here.
I put on my pants, which have always been a little loose, lifted my arms to put on my shirt, and my pants fell straight down my legs. I felt like a cartoon character. I tried a safety pin, and these French American flag pins they gave us, and finally a big paper clip, but they kept falling down. I feel like I may have sweated off some weight, but that was very inconvenient.
The non Normandy people and non History Day people attending the reception included the acting secretary of Veteran Affairs and Ms. Susan Eisenhower, the presidents granddaughter. She was so wonderful with the kids, and I really wanted to tell her that my Aunt Barbara always insisted she got her pound cake recipe via Mamie Eisenhower, but we didn't have time.
After the welcome, Mr. Perry, Dr. Gorn, Mr. Small, and Mr. Caplain spoke. Then, each student presented their 90 second eulogy. Ours was extra special because today was the anniversary of Eston's death. C did a wonderful job. A representative from the White House then spoke, and it have to say our kids did a better job speaking than she did. After that, the Secretary, Ms. Eisenhower, and the White House rep presented each student with a presidential challenge coin.
There was some confusion about the rules regarding cameras, so I took pictures until we were told not to. Someone did get a group picture with Ms. Eisenhower. After the picture, she interrupted someone to ask someone else to grab her purse. I resisted calling her Sofia.
Tonight was our free night, and the teachers had developed several choices for the kids, but they all chose either shopping at Georgetown or Arlington Cemetary. C and I both chose Arlington. She initially wanted to stay back, but I told her she was in a new place and needed to see as much as she could. We rode the campus shuttle to Foggy Bottom and grabbed a quick snack at Whole Foods. I had some very tasty grapes. We then hopped the Metro, which is not an easy task with 16 people, to Arlington. We hiked to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers just in time off the final changing of the guard. Such a solemn ceremony.
My Uncle Georg is buried near the Unknown, so I went to pay my respects while the others visited either Kennedy's grave or the Lee house. I thought I knew where he was buried and my phone wouldn't pull up the internet so I could look up the number. I would walk down a few rows, look at names, then walk a few more. I finally texted my sister to look up the number for me, but as soon as I hit send I walked to the next row and was there.
We then hiked over to The Iwo Jima Memorial for the sunset Marine parade. I had to sit and rest, but finally made it. The drum and bugle corp was performing first, followed by the silent rifle drill team. I had seen that in commercials, but seeing it in real life was pretty cool.
We returned to Foggy Bottom and found a burger joint and got the kids back with 15 minutes to spare before their curfew. Tomorrow is devoted to the National Archives. Today's steps: 14792. I might have had more if my pants had stay up.
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