SAN FRANCISCO TRIP:  Sunday-Wednesday, June 10-13, 2007

Equipment list

A Note from the Headmaster:  It’s time to gear up for our End-of-the-Year Trip!  Included below is important trip information for both parents and students.  If you have any questions, please call the school office.

Departure:  Students should arrive on campus at 7:30 a.m. for a prompt 8 a.m. departure on Santa Barbara Airbus on Sunday, June 10. 

Food for the Bus:  Students need to bring snacks, drinks, and a sack lunch for the bus ride on Sunday.

Return:  We expect to return to campus by 8 p.m. on Wednesday, June 13.   Parents are asked to pick up their students on campus at that time. 

Accommodations:  I reconnoitered our lodging facility in February.  It is quite nice, and I expect it will be a lot of fun to stay there.  We will be staying at Hosteling International, San Francisco, Fisherman’s Wharf, Fort Mason Building 240, San Francisco (phone number 415-771-7277 – for emergencies only, please).   

What Students Need to Bring:  Please refer to the attached list of items needed for this trip.  It is very important that your student pack lightly and compactly.  A medium-size duffle bag or suitcase would be perfect for this trip.

Activities:  Although our plans are still evolving, we are listing below some of the activities we’re planning for our San Francisco stay.  Some may involve students making choices; most are all-school activities. 

• A visit to Alcatraz
• A visit to the DeYoung Museum, including the special exhibit by Vivian Westwood
• A city bus tour of the major sites of San Francisco
• A walking tour in small groups—each supervised by an Anacapa faculty member—through Chinatown and North Beach
• A San Francisco Giants vs. Toronto Blue Jays baseball game at AT&T Park
• A guided tour of the Advanced Light Source facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Berkeley
• A tour of the World War II aircraft carrier, the USS Hornet, including a special Apollo spacecraft exhibit
• A visit to the Exploratorium
• A walk across the Golden Gate Bridge
• A walking tour of the Haight-Ashbury district
• A cable car ride
• Dinners out at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown and an Italian dinner in North Beach for our last night

Cost:  The all-inclusive cost of the End-of-the-Year Trip is $425.  Please send your check, payable to The Anacapa School, as soon as possible and no later than Wednesday, June 6.

Medications:  If your student will need to take any medications (including over-the-counter medications) during the trip, please bring the medication(s) to school by Wednesday, June 6.  Medicine should be in a clearly marked container labeled with the student’s name and exact directions for dispensing.  Please put the container(s) in a zip-lock plastic bag.

Cell Phone Policy:  With the burgeoning of cell phone use in recent years, Anacapa has had problems with students violating the school’s “no cell phone use” policy on trips.  This can undermine what we are trying to accomplish in the important personal / social dimension of our school program. 

It is absolutely essential that Anacapa trips be free of unnecessary outside distractions.  Our trips are carefully designed to be “in the moment” events to be experienced as a whole with the people on the trip.  Calls to and from friends and family take students out of the moment, pull them away from the experience, and go counter to the objectives of the experiential nature of Anacapa trips.

Because cell phones are useful in an emergency, we do not want to ban them from trips.  Parents are asked not to call their student—even to leave a message—unless it is a true emergency.  If a student needs to contact a parent or guardian, the student must ask a teacher for permission to make a call.  On the way home, students will be allowed to call their parents to update them on our actual arrival time. 

Emergency Contact Numbers:  We will have with us copies of the health and emergency information form you completed upon enrollment.  Is yours up to date?  If not, please call the school office right away.  Also, parents who plan to be out of town or otherwise unreachable at the phone number(s) listed on the form must provide the school with emergency contact information in writing no later than Wednesday, June 6.