With a free day on Sunday and beautiful weather in the nation’s capitol, everybody took advantage of their time to see some of the sights that were most exciting to them. Free access to the numerous Smithsonian Museums was taken advantage of: groups went to the Air and Space museum along the mall as well as to the larger facility near Dulles International Airport where they have the really big planes: the SR-71 Blackbird, the Space Shuttle and the Enola Gay, which dropped one of the two atomic bombs on Japan.

Some of the most impactful items seen related to the founding of our country and directly tied into the prep work that we did leading up to the trip. At the Smithsonian of American History, George Washington’s actual uniform he wore for ceremonies and inaugurals was on display, as was Lincoln’s iconic stovepipe hat and the Star Spangled Banner that was the inspiration for the national anthem.

A number of fellows rented a car and drove out to Monticello. While we examine the growing divide between the political views of our rural and urban populations, it is impressive to see how Thomas Jefferson was able to see this hundreds of years ago with these gems: “When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe" and "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."

Most of the class got a little taste of Washington protest marches mixed with a feeling of home with the immigration reform march on the Capitol Mall.

Also on display was a sobering reminder from September 11th that Freedom is never free...

Later that afternoon, we congregated back at the hotel and made our way to the airport to continue onward to Kentucky for the back half of our national trip.