Titi's Safety Patrol trip to Washington

Four days after coming back from Mexico, Titi left for Washington, D.C.  She went on the same trip that Carlos took last year.  It is organized by the school district and approximately 1,500 fifth graders that are in the Safety Patrol program, all from Palm Beach County, go every year.  They go in two trips and Titi got to go on the first trip.  There were more than 800 kids going.  The tradition is to go by train but it takes 22 hours to get to Washington!  They say it is like a huge sleepover but the kids are very well supervised by teachers. 

Titi's chaperone was one of her third grade teachers.  We like her a lot so we were happy to know Titi was going to be in her group of 12 girls.  Titi's roommates were Emily He., Celeste and a girl namede Julie but I don't remember her.  Gigi was also in the group so I was happy for that.  She is a very friendly girl and Titi and her get along very well.  There were 4 groups of 12 girls and two of the teachers in charge of the other groups knew Titi very well.

I packed way too many things for Titi but I was worried about the cold. She used to not feel cold but now that she has lost weight, she seems to feel the cold much more.  When we were in Mexico, she kept saying she was cold and it was not that cold outside. I never had to wear a hat or scarf but Titi did and she insisted she was still cold. 

Titi was able to use her phone a lot so we kept in touch.  She was fine on the train but by Friday night, she was tired and started to feel homesick.  It was hard talking to her on the phone, knowing she was not feeling happy and I was so far away.  The teacher assured me Titi was having a great time and that she probably was just tired.  Every time we talked she seemed homesick and would say she could not wait to come home.  On Sunday night, once she was on the train, she texted me for 3 hours!  Last year, Carlos was only allowed to use the phone 3 or 4 times and just for a couple of minutes, this year, Titi was able to text for most of the trip back.

I could not wait to see her and Carlos and I left home early to go and pick her up at the train station.  The train arrived around 5:30 and most of the girls requested "good food", they said they were tired of turkey and cheese sandwiches.  Titi requested McDonalds and that made Carlos happy too.  We had banners and a cake waiting at home and a happy dad waiting for his little girl.