Bergjord Boarding

May 23-29, 2024

By: Luke

The day has arrived. It is finally Memorial Day and we get to march down Constitution avenue. Though, that doesn’t happen until 2:00 pm for us. The company that organizes these trips isn’t known for giving high-schoolers down time. That means we have more things to do and historical sights to see. Starting with Ford’s Theatre, where Abraham Lincoln was shot, and The Petersen House, where he died the next day.

There was some confusion on when the theatre opened so we filled time by absolutely clogging up a souvenir store on the same block. We hadn’t really gotten a chance to shop for souvenirs other than museum gift shops so this was actually really nice.

We dropped our purchases off a the busses and got in line to wait for the first dramatic telling of the day. This theatre is beautifully preserved and subtly updated so you can imagine it in its era. We filled in to watch a national parks worker perform a reenactment of sorts. He told a story from the perspective of a soldier meant to guard Lincoln that night. He went over the assassination and also hunting down John Wilkes Booth, the assassin.

HURRY UP!… and wait. That is the name of the game at most organized events similar to this. We bussed over from Ford’s Theatre to near our staging area. After a very speedy “suit up” and unload of the busses we walked to this park. Once here we were all given sack lunches provided by the event. Having enough calories and water in all of our systems was crucial because it was a very hot day/week in DC.

Our group was allowed 6 grown ups including directors to walk with the band. We also had two chaperones carry our school banner at the front of our block. That left Samie and another chaperone to find a spot on the parade route and watch. They found somewhere close to the beginning and then followed us all the way to the end. Sam ended up taking a lot of excellent photos and videos of us and other groups in the parade. One of my favorite was this fife and drum company in traditional uniform.

Sam also had a moment with legendary actor Brian Cranston. He was a large part of the concert the previous night and was being driven down the parade route. Cranston made eye contact with Sam and she had to do a double take before making a ” oh my god that’s Brian Cranston” face. He then made a similar face to her and smiled and waved. Sam was so shaken that she was slow to get her phone and got a less than perfect photo of him pulling away.

It was a very hard march for the drumline with the heat and extra weight on their shoulder. Multiple students gave every last bit of energy their body could handle and even a little more. Centrals band did an excellent job performing. A event staff person with head set and clip board made extra effort to run over to me and let me know we had been the best band to march yet that day. Weeks later we received the award of outstanding band, there were only two given that day.

After a slow recovery and many cases of water we went to a dinner that was also provided by the event. This was hosted by the Catholic University in Washington DC. First impressions of driving up to this campus was that it looked a lot like Hogwarts. It was obvious how full of history and money this place was. We had a couple of options to choose from in their dining hall ranging from pizza to pork chops.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at The Iwo Jima Marine Memorial. There was a storm blowing in and it was sunset. This memorial is also massive. We paid respects and grabbed a photo before packing back up and calling it a day.

One morning in DC left and then we hit the road for another quick 30 hour drive.