Hedgehogs Do DC, part 1

Note: Our Homes United Co-op kids decided they wanted a mascot and dubbed themselves hedgehogs.

In October, the co-op kids were in their US History & Government class and joked, "We should go on a field trip to Washington, D.C. Ha ha ha!" Their teachers overheard them and thought, "Yeah, that would be amazing; we should make that happen!" And then they made it happen.

So, the first week of March, 10 kids and 10 parents hopped on a non-stop flight from Seattle to Baltimore. Aubree was giddy with excitement in the weeks leading up to the trip. Adventures with friends? We were speaking her language! 

Once on the airplane, the kids swapped seats so they could all sit by each other, which left the moms also sitting together. No complaints here! The 4 1/2 hour flight flew by (pun intended).

We made for quite a crowd at the gate in Baltimore! From Baltimore, we partnered up and took an Uber (my first time!) down to Arlington, Virginia where our hotel was located. Over the course of our five days in DC, we took Uber rides countless times.  In most instances, Uber was less expensive than taking the Metro (not to mention faster and more convenient). Meeting and chatting with our very diverse Uber drivers was an unexpected highlight of our trip.

We stayed at a Residence Inn, which proved to be especially beneficial when it came to food. The breakfasts every morning were impressive, and on Tuesday and Wednesday night they offered a "Mix" which provided us with dinner. Score!

After Tuesday nights in-hotel dinner, some of us moms decided to make a quick trip to Target, mostly to stock up on food items for the week, but I also needed to buy a coat because I'd inadvertently left my coat at the terminal in Seattle. Whooops! Being unfamiliar with the area, we took an Uber to Target, but after a day confined to airplanes and cars, Tallie convinced us to briskly walk the mile back to the hotel.

We returned to our hotel room to find the girls watching cooking shows and Studio C. Over the week, our hotel room (we shared with Anita and Audrey) became a gathering hub for kids and moms (and you KNOW that's just the way we like it).

We tried to get to bed early, but adjusting to East Coast time wasn't as easy as we'd hoped. Regardless, we had to be up and out the door early to meet with our state senator, Patty Murray, by 9:30 am. 

While I may not agree with Senator Murray on many of her policies, she was extremely gracious and professional in her interactions with us. We joined her for her weekly meeting with constituents. The room was packed with people visiting DC for a variety of reasons. She asked each person to stand, introduce themselves, tell where they were from, and explain why they had come to DC. Surprisingly, there were a number of other people there from our relatively small town. That resulted in a lot of cheering. After the introductions, she discussed what she would be working on that day (indicating that there was an important Senate vote that afternoon at 4 pm), introduced her staff (they were all surprisingly young), then took a few questions (including a thoughtful question about the Coast Guard from our Audrey).

Soon, Senator Murray had to get back to work, but two of her staff members ("lowly" interns) took our group on a tour of the Capitol Building. As we would our way to the basement, they indicated that no food is allowed in the Capitol. That posed a problem because most of us had lunched packed in our backpacks. No worries! Intern Alex to the rescue. We loaded him up with all of our bags, and he ran them up for safe keeping in Senator Murray's office.

Next we had the unique opportunity of riding on the short tram from the senators' office building over to the Capitol Building. Normally the tram is only reserved for staff, so it was pretty neat to be able to sneak a ride.

Intern Emma was our tour guide for the morning.

Us moms were super interested in every area, but the tour was long and slow moving, which perhaps isn't the best for 11-13 year olds.

At one point in the Capitol Dome room, the kids (whose feet had already begun to hurt) sat down. It didn't take long before a guard scurried over to tell them there was no sitting allowed.

We had a quick lunch in the Capitol Building cafeteria (an excellent place for people watching) before our 1:30 appointment with Representative Kim Schrier. Representative Schrier is newly elected, and had only been in DC for 8 weeks when we met with her. Perhaps we were the first group of students with whom she'd had a chance to meet? After being introduced to our kids, her first remarks were (to paraphrase), "This morning I was in a meeting discussing raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. Did you know there are people who earn so little they can't afford to take care of their families? Raise your hand if you think we should raise the Federal Minimum wage to $15 an hour so people can feed their families."

Maaaaaaybe that wasn't the best jumping off spot for our group. Personally, I thought it was super lame that she only presented one side of the argument and then put these middle school kids in a such an awkward situation. Some of us parents turned to discuss with the kids some of the pros and cons of this proposal. Other moms responded directly to Representative Schrier. Jamie, for example, countered, "We own our own business and already pay our employees $15 an hour. If the Federal Minimum Wage goes up, then, in order to keep our quality employees, we would have to raise our wages. That means raising the prices of our services...." 

I felt a little bad for Ms. Schrier. I suggest next time she meets with a group of kids, she spend more time finding out about them and letting them ask her questions before launching into her own agenda. That being said, we did have a few minutes to ask her some questions, and it was absolutely fascinating to learn some of the behind the scenes mechanisms of the government.

After Representative Schrier had to leave for a vote, we had a few minutes to talk to her main aide. That conversation was even more fascinating that talking with Ms. Schrier! I can't remember his name now, but he had a lot of experience on Capitol Hill and was a wealth of information and insight. His primary area of interest and expertise is early childhood education, which is a hot spot for me as well. I *might* have gotten a little passionate in discussing some of my views.  In all honestly, us moms could have stayed talking with him for hours, but the kids were d.o.n.e..

The day was not yet done. After leaving the Capitol, we stepped outside into a glorious almost-spring day and headed over to the Library of Congress.

The Library of Congress is impressive, but our assigned tour guide was the very definition of monotone and boring. After a few minutes, I couldn't handle her pace, so I wandered off on my own with three or four like minded students. We loved seeing Thomas Jefferson's personal library, reading the fantastic literary quotes etched on the walls, admiring the artwork and architecture, and smelling the delicious odor of old books in the private office of the main librarian.

Our day still wasn't done (though our feet begged us to consider otherwise). Senator Murray had given us passes to the Senate gallery, so at 4pm (just in time for the big vote on a controversial circuit court judge), we headed back to the Capitol Building. We'd already encountered a lot of security checkpoints, but they were nothing compared to the security requirements to go into the senate gallery. We couldn't take anything with us: no phones, no water, nothing in our pockets, not even smart watches. 

Once we made it into the gallery, we were admonished that we couldn't do anything that showed how we felt about votes or what was happening below us: no smiling, frowning, scowling, nothing. One of our students wasn't feeling well and started to fall asleep on her mom's shoulder. A security guard came over to tell her sleeping also wasn't allowed.

Watching the vote was nothing like we'd anticipated. Over the course of 30 minutes, Senators wandered in, voted with a thumbs up or a thumbs down, then either walked straight back out, or stayed to chat with other senators on the senate floor. Before the vote began, we saw two different senators speaking to a pretty much empty room. Sure, there were about 20 pages there (high school juniors) who looked about ready to fall asleep, transcriptionists who worked in 15 minute shifts, and a few clerks (apparently scrolling Facebook on their phones), but otherwise they were pontificating to an audience-less room. Crazy!

Finally, we were finished in DC for the day. We decided to take the Metro back to the hotel and told the kids they were in charge of figuring out where we needed to go and navigating our way through the maze.

They did a super job! Unfortunately, during one of our transfers, one of our moms (Kristy) didn't manage to make it out of the car in time. Another mom (Rachel A.) tried to hold the doors open for her, but apparently that doesn't work on Metro cars! She almost got squished and had to get pulled out at the last minute by another passenger.  It's all about the adventure, right?! Kristy managed to catch up with us not too much later, but it didn't take long for this experience to reach "co-op lore" status.

 

We got back to our hotel in time for another "Mix" dinner (this one was more finger foods, but still worked well enough). After dinner, the kids watched a movie in the hotel room while a bunch of us moms talked for hours about politics, religion, family, and other often-avoided but so meaningful topics. I LOVE these thoughtful, well-informed, respectful women and feel unbelievably blessed to get to interact with them and have them help teach my kids.