Remember how I said I get to travel with students from time to time? Well this was one of those times. I took 10 high school students to Louisville, Kentucky. It was the first time I had taken multiple students on a trip, let alone a trip that was 11 hours away. For many of my students, this was their first time out of Nebraska without their parents.
We traveled via charter bus with 3 other schools in our local area. I thought this would be fun for my students to maybe get to know other kids, buttttt let’s be honest, I also knew I would need more eyes on my kids. It never hurts to have another adult present!
We got to Louisville at 9am and had breakfast at Denny’s. (Sorry Denny’s, 40 kids at once probably kind of sucked…) HOWEVER, they had some good priced items that were totally reasonable for high school students. After breakfast, we rushed to Churchill Downs. Which was pretty freaking cool. I found out, it really isn’t that expensive to attend. You can get general admission tickets for as low as around $80. Definitely planning an “adult only” trip here for the spring!
After Churchill Downs, we got to our hotel. I let the students meander about the city (within reason and had to stay with the bus buddy). We got dinner together, and then attended the conference.
Naturally, when taking 10 kids on a vacation, ahem, I mean, “Leadership Convention” (:, there is issues that arise. Drama among the students, kids getting sick, kids running out of money, and more. But we got through it all and made it back in one piece.
Other things we got to do in Lou-a-ville, was go to the Muhammad Ali Center, go to Ruby Tuesdays (which was delish), we saw the great, Michelle Poler. I will attach a video to her Ted Talk below. She is amazing! We also go to check out some local art museums and go to a science center. I was personally hoping to go to take a bourbon tour, but when you have several high school students with you, I didn’t have any time to sneak away. It was okay though. We also didn’t get a chance to go the Louisville Slugger Museum.
It honestly was okay I didn’t get to do some of the things I really wanted to. It was a surprisingly joyful trip. I was able to feel so refreshed being in a new city that I never knew I wanted to see. I also got a sense of joy of being the responsible adult in the room. I was able to help these students see the world, when most of them hadn’t been able to see anything outside of Nebraska.
Later this year, this group will have an opportunity to go to Anaheim, CA! Next fall, we will be heading to Dallas, Tx!
Abby Rose 