Arlington

This is an iconic field trip right outside of D.C., across the Potomac. You can take kids of all ages but the gravity of the place is obviously more easily appreciated by middle schoolers and up. The cemetery’s rolling green hills make an impressive landscape, as does the somber Changing of the Guard ritual, which occurs every hour October 1 through March 31, and every half hour April 1 through September 30, at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.