Seth Czarnecki is the founding director of the Algonquin Writing Center in Northborough, MA. He currently serves as SSWCA’s Northeast Regional Representative, and he has previously served as the CAPTA Social Media Coordinator.
Full disclosure: Field trips aren’t my thing. I’m fairly low-stress by nature, but there’s something about traveling with other people’s children which gets me wound up. So, when the prospect arose to bring nine teenagers from central Massachusetts to Arlington this past December for CAPTA 2017, I balked. I didn’t want to organize, coordinate, and plan the thing. I certainly didn’t want to lose sleep in my hotel while I imagined my students running rampant around Arlington taking the Metro to who knows where. However, after being talked down by my co-director, Sara, and assured by my tutors that everything will be OK, I relented.
Getting Started
Because our crew was so small and from so far away, flying was our only option. Initially, Sara and I had planned on utilizing one of those educational trip planning services which will book everything—transportation, flight, hotel—for you. We figured the convenience was worth the price. However, after receiving a slew of mouth dropping price estimates, we decided to go it alone.
For affordable air travel, we found JetBlue to be the most reasonable. They were also willing to book large groups (some airlines wouldn’t). We hired a local airport transportation company to shuttle us from our school and to pick us up after our return. Finally, we reserved rooms through the hotel block at the Hilton Garden Inn, which was undoubtedly the easiest part of the planning process.
Travel
It would be a lie to say that I breathed easy once all the travel was planned. Did I make my students count off while we were in the shuttle on the way to the airport? I may have. Did I require the students to go to the bathroom with a buddy in said airport? I did. Was I constantly asking everyone if they had their tickets? Of course. Despite my nerves, we landed at Reagan without a hitch and made the 25 minute Metro ride to Court House station. After checking in at the hotel, we were in our rooms and (presumably) asleep by 11pm.
Take it from someone who is accustomed to the spaghetti on a map subway system that is the Boston T, the Metro is your best friend. It’s inexpensive (we got around the entire weekend for about $20 per person), and easy to navigate. It’s two stops on either the orange or silver line to get to GMU and 30-minutes on the orange or silver (in the opposite direction) to the Capitol.
Extra-Curricular
Walking distance from the hotel are a number of fine establishments. Those of us who were up for breakfast went to Bayou Bakery, a coffee place with a New Orleans twist (the beignets are a must). For dinner, Fire Works Pizzeria provided an eclectic variety of wood-fired pizza in a group-friendly atmosphere. Just be sure to answer when they call to confirm the reservation or else you’ll lose it.
After dinner, the eleven of us headed into DC for a surprise team- building activity. First, we told the kids we were doing karaoke. Then, we told them it was a slam poetry workshop in which all of them would have to perform a poem in front of an audience of fifty or so strangers. Finally, we led them to an inconspicuous row house in a quiet neighborhood. This was the home of Escape Artist DC. There, our group was split into two teams, each of which had to figure, puzzle, think, and argue their way out of a unique escape room. Don’t be fooled; these rooms are a challenge and take real teamwork to break out of. My group was utterly unsuccessful and spent most of the time laughing at our own ignorance. In a lot of ways, our collective failure brought us closer together. On the subway ride back to the hotel, we compared notes and resolved to redeem ourselves next year.
Final Thoughts
Last week, while a few of last year’s attendees were working on their workshop proposals for SSWCA 2018, Sara turned to me and asked if I was ready to start organizing for the trip. Full disclosure: Field trips still aren’t my thing. Luckily, we have a plan and a new batch of tutors ready to engage with the secondary writing community they’ve heard so much about.
