Jacket World Travel

11/04/2024

Tonight is the night! Please share this with anyone who might be interested 🙂

05/04/2024

THIS THURSDAY: big enrollment day for Jacket World Travel!

6pm, current 8th-12th graders: come find out about our European destinations for 2026!

7pm, current 7th graders: come sign up for your 8th grade trip to Boston & NYC!

See pics for RSVP info- even if you can’t make the meeting, this will help get you important info.

Please share with any CNP student/ family who would love an opportunity to travel!

21/03/2024

Just a regular Thursday morning at the castle—Windsor Castle, that is. Alan, our tour guide for the day, was with us all day and did a phenomenal job of giving us every detail of history of the castle and the royal family while also making us laugh and giving us new catch phrases to use in our everyday Oklahoma lives (“Bob’s your uncle!” “Crikey!” “I bet you’re feeling cream-crackered by now, eh?”) Truly, the town of Windsor is a delight, and the castle itself is just incredible. A living, working home for royalty. Wowie zowies.

We ate lunch in town—fish and chips for a lot of us!—and then had a guided bus tour with Alan of things we hadn’t seen yet: Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and a view of the financial/ business side of the city of London across the Thames.

Because our group is so efficient with timing and because we’ve had the blessing of a smooth itinerary, we found ourselves with some extra time before dinner. Alan guided us to Carnaby Street, where, if any of us had pounds left, we could shop until we dropped. Instead, some found cholera water spouts while others went dumpster-diving for books. We are an odd group, but a fun one.😂

Dinner was traditional British food: meat pies with peas and gravy! It was delicious. Once we made it back to our hotel, we had one last family meeting with Liz, who asked all of us to present one thorn (a difficulty on tour) and one rose (a way we have grown on tour). It was such a blessing to hear the kids talk about how much they’ve learned from hearing other languages and seeing other cultures and realizing that not only are we ridiculously privileged in America, but our privilege also does not automatically make us better.

Travel changes people, y’all. I’m convinced of it. I know it’s changed me, and traveling with this group has made me better, for sure.❤️

20/03/2024

We had a super early breakfast in our Paris hotel in order to catch the 9am Eurostar to London. 2.5 hours through the Chunnel and we suddenly understood the language around us again. 😂

Our tour director led us through Trafalgar Square and Liecester Square before dropping us off in Covent Garden for lunch and free time. The kids had a contest to see who could take the most creative red phone booth photos- they did a great job!

Once our bellies were full and we’d spent enough pounds on souvenirs, we walked over to the London Eye and got amazing pics of the London skyline. Even though I’ve seen it in photographs, it was shocking how big the Eye is!

We found ourselves after that in the most famous graffiti alleyway in the city. This art is legit!

Dinner tonight was at a Lebanese restaurant, and our Oklahoman eaters were all a bit hesistant, but WHOA, BABY: this meal was amazing!

On our way to the hotel with our new bus driver, we serenaded him and our Dutch tour director with our “Oklahoma music.” I am happy to report that the entire bus sang every word to “Friends in Low Places,” and while our TD mocked the drawl of “low-whoa-oh places,” they both wanted to hear it again. 🤣🤣

After a very early start, we made it back to the (insanely hip and quite nice) hotel earlier than usual, which gave some of the kids time to hang out in the posh gaming areas. However, since their group leader is beyond tired by day seven of our trip, room checks will for sure be early tonight. 😴

19/03/2024

We woke up this morning to our first French breakfast and great trepidation about impending strikes that might cancel our trip to Versailles. Thankfully, we had a guided bus tour first that took our minds off cancellations and focused our attention on Parisian traffic jams and expert-level bus driving by our driver Thomas. Even with crazy traffic, we were still able to see the opera house, famous coffee houses, the Ritz where Princess Diana stayed before her death, the Arc de Triomphe, Les Invalides from the side we didn’t enter yesterday, and the cafe that makes an appearance in “Emily in Paris”, where we stopped to coffee and potties. While we grabbed a pastry and a mocha, we got word that Versailles was opening albeit later than normal, and we would still get to keep our reservation! 🥳

We headed out to the suburb of Versailles for lunch and had legit French food: duck, ratatouille, French onion soup—or if you’re Mrs. Winters, the cheese plate. 🧀🧀 It was our first French-speaking immersive experience, so we were very grateful for Google Translate. 😂

The palace of Versailles is difficult to describe in its over-the-top-ness, so I’ll let the pictures do the talking. What you won’t see here is Alan, our guide for the day, who knew anything and everything there is to know about the palace and its history and was excited to bring us into the history as well. He was incredible!

From there, we had a couple of hours to wander around the Eiffel Tower. Some of our group learned firsthand just how sneaky gypsies and swindlers can be in these kinds of places. Many of us got Parisian hot chocolate and eclairs from the cafe nearby, and it was a picture-perfect day to get some perfect pictures, too.

Dinner tonight was a flatbread restaurant that just kept bringing us flatbreads as soon as we cleared one from the table! It was amazing! We had to beg them to bring dessert instead of piling on more savory dishes after we were stuffed.

One last stop at Montparnassee Tower to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle in the night sky: beautiful!

18/03/2024

We left our Belgian waffles and chocolate behind at 8am this morning and took great road-trip naps on the four-hour trip to Paris! We did make a great pitstop along the way and had a travel-family group tasting of potato chips we can’t get in the US. 🤤

Once we got to the city of the 2024 Olympics, things looked immediately different—motorcycles weaving in and out of bumper-to-bumper traffic, French language on every sign and billboard, and this big ol’ river running through the middle of the city. 🙂 Pictures simply do not do this city justice.

We had lunch in the Latin Quarter, which means we got great views of Notre Dame, Shakespeare and Company bookshop, and about a zillion patisseries.🥐🥮 From there, we road through town to Hotel de Invalides, a military war museum and the final resting place of Napoleon.

Dinner got really interesting when our restaurant, with which our tour director had double confirmed ahead of time, double-booked themselves, requiring some wizardry from our TD, bus driver, and the restaurant to re-route us to another location. Alas, we still got the crepes, and our group is now semi-qualified for the next 5K because of how quickly we’ve had to navigate these city streets as a big group.

Our carbohydrate intake is absurd on this trip, but our watches’ move goals say we’ve earned it!

17/03/2024

We said tot ziens (goodbye in Dutch) to Amsterdam this morning and traveled by bus to Brussels, where we had a very important job: make chocolate! Luckily (on this St. Patrick’s Day), we are exactly the right group for this, as we (perhaps just I) sang loudly with the radio while we learned how to temper the dark chocolate to the exact right temperature to create all kinds of goodies. We drank hot chocolate while our guides explained what makes any chocolate quality, and the simple fact is that good chocolate is just that: SIMPLE.

Having conquered Belgian chocolate, our next task was to find frites (French fries fried twice in beef fat) and both kinds of Belgian waffles: Liege and Brussels. We take our food quite seriously on these trips!

Besides eating local delicacies, we also found the square with the most amazing buildings, the peeing boy, girl, and dog (yes, you read that right), and a St. Patrick’s Day parade that some of our group accidentally became a part of. 😂

A quick, rainy few hours in Belgium, but a delight nonetheless!

16/03/2024

When we plan these trips, there’s always a balance: what itinerary will the majority be excited about, and which places will give us the most to learn? Every new place brings exciting adventures and new memories, but I picked this itinerary specifically for this day: to take the students with whom I read and studied The Diary of Anne Frank to her actual hiding place. It was exactly as special as I imagined.

As a teacher, there are few things more gratifying than to get to share and make real new information or important historical events or common themes about humanity. Anne’s story does all three of those things. To experience it with my kiddos, to hear them talk about what they remembered from class, and to see them get emotional with me about literature becoming their reality—I’ll take today with me forever.

Shout out to my very first students who came to this same museum after their graduated from high school 13 years ago and bought me all the postcards and posters. You guys saved me some euros today, for real. ❤️

15/03/2024

We left OKC at 10am Thursday and landed in Amsterdam at 11am Friday. We raced around the city today to fight jet lag head on, but as I post this at 7:30pm Amsterdam time, most of us are crawling into bed begging for sleep. 😂 Regardless, we had one of those days where you stop in your tracks at the scenery in front of you realizing, “Whoa, wait: I’ve absolutely seen this picture on a postcard! How is this real life?!”

Our group are a bunch of troopers, y’all! I heard not one complaint from a single kid, even in their exhaustion. 🙌🏻

14/03/2024

Europe Quartet 2024 is underway! 37 of us are off to Amsterdam overnight and will see Brussels, Paris, and London over the next nine days. Come follow along with us- it’s going to be epic! ✈️🥳

29/09/2023

If you know a current CNP 7th or 8th grader, this info is for them: we will have signup meetings for end-of-8th-grade trips on TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3. Please see graphics for time, place, and RSVP. This is for both CMS and NPMS students.

28/05/2023

Last day was Radio City Tour and then straight to the airport. Approximately 40 miles of walking and 3,000 miles of travel round trip, we are exhausted but well educated on history, culture, and travel! We couldn’t have done any of this trip without our amazing tour director Jeanne, a retired public educator who chooses to do this in retirement, and Edwin the bus driver, who has been driving buses for NYC and now private companies for 35 years while his wife was a NYC cop. Fascinating, wonderfully kind servants who gave their all to our group this week!

27/05/2023

Sunrise Skyline —> Nighttime Skyline and everything in between!
-Grand Central Station
-NY Public Library
-Bryant Park
-St. Patrick’s Cathedral
-Rockefeller Center
-Central Park
-Metropolitan Museum of Art (see scavenger hunt reeenactment pics for a good laugh!)
-Times Square!

26/05/2023

There’s too much to say about this day in a post, so if you’re in for a ride along, please see the pic captions. If not, just know that these kids found out that NYC is awesome today, and NYC found out these kids are pretty awesome, too.

25/05/2023

Arlington National Cemetery by day and NYC skyline by night- we hit five states in one day! 🇺🇸 🚌🏙️

24/05/2023

You know those days where you’ve packed so much in that, by the end of it, you’ve actually forgotten where you started? That was our day.

-Capitol
-Library of Congress
-Supreme Court
-National Police Memorial
-White House
-Mount Vernon
-Dinner
-Alexandria Ghost Tour

23/05/2023

Monday was a LONG day, but a good one! 7 miles walking, according to my Apple Watch…

22/05/2023

2023 trip is underway!

03/12/2022

Come see Anne Frank's house and eat Belgium chocolate and ride the London Eye and awe at the majesty of the Eiffel tower! Spring Break (NOT summer... oops!) 2024 will be here before we know it. 🙂

21/09/2022

Gearing up and planning for our next trip across the pond! This time to FOUR countries!

GUYS! Four countries in nine days, including London and Paris-- you want to be on this trip. This one is going to be INCREDIBLE. I promise.

21/09/2022

GUYS! Four countries in nine days, including London and Paris-- you want to be on this trip. This one is going to be INCREDIBLE. I promise.

28/05/2022

Last day, sad day—especially since we are now on a super long delay at LGA. Regardless, Central Park as a last NYC stop is always the right call! Until next time, Big Apple, we love you!

28/05/2022

Packed it in yesterday—so much so that by the time we got back to the hotel, Mrs. Winters barely had enough energy to check rooms, let alone post pics. But these pictures are everything!

-NY skyline from the Jersey side
-Ellis Island, where most of us could likely trace our lineage
-Statue of Liberty
-Battery Park
-Wall Street
-Trinity Church (you know, the one where Hamilton is buried!)
-not pictured: 9/11 museum, which our kids opted for and loved
-our own group’s breakaway from our combined group led by the tour director, making our way to 30 Rock by way of the subway
-FAO Schwarz
-Times Square
-Phantom of the Opera!

Last day today: Central Park ❤️

27/05/2022

Spent the morning seeing the buildings we currently cannot access, the Capitol and Supreme Court, then made a mad dash through the National Archives to see the original Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and other important documents. We spent quite a bit of time on the bus, but our reward was NEW YORK CITY! We took the kids through all kinds of busy streets to get to a legit NY pizzeria, which was worth every penny and all the calories (I’d eat it again right this second). We learned how to stay to the right and close that gap through 34th street on our way to the Empire State Building, where we made it to the top just in time to witness a proposal! ❤️ Time to rest now for the busiest day yet—trying to see all of NYC in just one full day. 🙃

26/05/2022

Arlington in the morning, Mount Vernon in the afternoon, and Alexandria in the evening. We capped off the night with a walk to Walmart for the bus ride to NYC tomorrow. Happy campers out here! 🎉

26/05/2022

Tell me you’re on an EF trip without telling me you’re on an EF trip. I’ll go first.

25/05/2022

Washington, DC—FINALLY! We haven’t been since summer 2019, and the city is buzzing with travelers just as anxious as we were to hit the road.

Chances are, if there’s a monument or memorial in the area, we saw it today. Feeling our 4am start, but excited to see more tomorrow!