Heritage Tour-Chinese Heritage Tour Day 1 (Click HERE to view pictures!) We left the Alfond Youth Center at 8:15 am and arrived in Winthrop at the State YMCA Camo at 9:00 am to pick up the Chinese Kids and Adults to head South and Boston. We went to Quincy Market, Harvard Square, and MIT and it took us a lot longer than expected. The traffic was heavy and the people took their time and tried to observe everything around them. We didn't get to the Home Town Buffet as we ran out of time so we had supper at Wendy's before we headed to the Hotel. We were in our rooms by 10:00 pm to get ready for Wednesday and New York City. Hope everyone had a great day in Waterville, Maine and in China. Day 2 (Click HERE to view pictures!) We woke up this morning in New Jersey and it was raining hard. We all thought that we would have a tough day as some of the people were not prepared for the rain. We loaded the bus and by 7:30 am we headed into New York City. We arrived at Battery Park at 8:30 am and by 9:30 am we arrived at Liberty Island to see the Statue. What an awesome sight. We had a chance to go inside the Statue and the kids took a lot of pictures. After lunch we went to the Empire State Building and it took us a while to get to the 86th floor but we made it. Everyone went outside on the observation deck but it was so foggy you couldn't see anything. We took a ride thru Times Square and we tried to find the UN Building but we ran out of time. We had supper at the Home Town Buffet and everyone ate to much. We arrived at the Comfort Inn at 9:45 pm and hopefully we all will get a good nights sleep as we are in Philadelphia on Thursday. We had to drive thru a bad Lightning storm and it rained hard. Right now the weather looks good for tomorrow. Hope every had a great day back in Maine. Day 3 (Click HERE to view pictures!) The weather was beautiful this morning when we woke up in Philadelphia. The sun was shinning with a little breeze and it made it comfortable. We did the Mint in the morning and we saw them making quarters and pennies. Our reservation at Independence Hall was for 11:00 am and by Noon we were ready to do the Liberty Bell. Everyone had a chance to get some good pictures to take back home with them. We went to Ben Franklin's underground museum and we learned a lot about Franklin and his many accomplishments. We then had lunch at the Bourse before we saw Franklin's grave site. We boarded the bus at 2:30 pm to head for DC. We stopped at a Shopping Mall fot a couple of hours and that put us behind by over 2 hours and when we got to DC, the Old Post Office Pavilion was closed for the day. We went to Union Station to have supper and the only place that was open was McDonalds and Johhy Rockets. We arrived at the Hotel at 11:00 pm to get ready for Friday and a day in DC. We will visit the National Archives Museum and the Natural Science Museum plus the Memorials. We had a great day today and hopefully the weather will be nice tomorrow so that we can have another super day. Day 4 (Click HERE to view pictures!) We slept in this morning as everyone was a bit tired so we left the Hotel at 9:00 am under sunny skies and warm weather. Our first stop landed us at the National Archives Museum where we saw a lot of the original papers that were used to start our great country. We had lunch at the Old Post Office Pavilion and then we took in the Natural History Museum. We spent 3 hours there and still didn't have a chance to see everything. We had an early supper at the Old Post Office Pavilion and at night we visited the Memorials in DC. First we went to the WW II Memorial to get some pictures and then we visited the Lincoln Memorial, Viet Nam, and Korean Memorials. We finished up our day at the White House before we headed back to our Hotel. On Saturday we will do Arlington in the am and the Air & Space Museum in the pm. Hope the weather was good in Maine as it was beautiful in Washington, DC. Day 5 (Click HERE to view pictures!) Another beautiful day in the DC area as the sun was shinning and it was hot. We went to Arlington in the am to see John Kennedy's grave site and Bobby Kennedy's grave site. We walked up to the top of the hill where we saw the memorials for the two space shuttle accidents along with the "Changing of the Guard". It was an impressive sight and exciting to watch even though it was extremely hot for everyone. We left the Changing of the Guard and headed to the Robert E. Lee house and some of us toured his house even though it was empty. We had lunch at the Cemetary and then we headed for the Capital and the Air & Space Museum. By 4:00 pm we were all tired as we headed for the Old Post Office Pavilion to have supper. After supper we headed for our Hotel with a small detour to do a little shopping. Our Chinese friends love to shop, especially for shoes. We got back early and headed for bed as we have an early wake up call as we will be heading to New York City to catch a plane back home. Enjoy the good weather as long as you can. Take care. Day 6 Every one was up early this morning as we loaded the bus at 6:45 am and had breakfast at 7:00 am. By 7:30 am we were heading to New York and Kennedy Airport to let everyone off to fly back to China. All of the Chinese poeple were tired and they slept all the way from Laurel, Maryland to the Airport. We arrived at Kennedy at around 1:15 pm and we departed at around 2:00 pm to head to Boston and then Maine. We took Irina to Quincy Market as she was leaving to go home on Monday to spend a few weeks with her family until she arrives back to Colby to spend another year with her studies.
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