A lot has happened since the last post. I moved out of Kim & Steve’s house into an apartment in Manchester. I moved in the week before spring break. So for a week, I slept on an inflatable mattress and used a folding chair to sit in. I also didn’t have any pots and pans to cook with, so I made do with microwaveable cooking.  Saturday I flew to Kansas City to load up the U-Haul and bring all of our possessions to New Hampshire. This meant that Janet now needed to move in with my parents until I could come back for her after her school year ended. I traveled back with the three cats and saw some beautiful scenery in upstate New York and Vermont. I hired some guys to unload the truck and felt good to have some furniture in the apartment. Because of all the moving and getting situated, weekend adventures kind of stopped for awhile. But a different kind of adventure presented itself in the latter part of May.

The 8th grade was planning a field trip to Philadelphia and New York City to visit the historic places they’d studied in American History. An administrator was needed for the trip to attend to a special needs student. Since I had no family obligations and loved adventures, I quickly volunteered. When I taught 4th grade, we used to take the students to the Missouri state capital in Jefferson City. I felt like this was quite the trip as we would often take the train or a coach to a destination three hours away.  Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine one day I’d chaperone students on field trips to New York or Philadelphia. I later learned this was common and the group had been to two inaugurations in Washington D.C.

The team was excited to have me, knowing how much I loved to travel. Our first stop was Philadelphia where we saw the Liberty Bell, Ben Franklin’s press, Betsy Ross’s house, Independence Hall and other historic sites. The kids were even able to take a horse drawn carriage ride.  We boarded our bus and headed north to spend the night in a hotel near the Meadowlands stadium. As we drove through New Jersey, one of the teachers pointed to me and said “look at the farmland!” This must be a big thing for a native of New Hampshire that only sees the woods. I laughingly reminded her that I grew in Missouri and this was pretty much my back yard. After a decent night’s rest we rose early the next morning to go to the 911 memorial and museum.

The museum and memorial had only recently been completed and the train station was still under construction. The students had studied the tragedy and made reports and artwork depicting the day.  Many adults were worried about the emotional reaction kids might have. As it turned out, the adults had the emotional reaction as many of us were reliving the event the students only knew through research.

We concluded our trip to NYC with a tour of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.  After buying souvenirs at a battery souvenir shop, our bus took us through mid-town and Times Square and I was asked to point out famous landmarks along the way. I can’t say that a field trip is my favorite way to visit NYC, but it’s still so awesome to think that this type of field trip is only a little farther adventure than the one’s I took to Jefferson City with my 4th graders. I love living in New England!

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” – Helen Keller