By Kate Day

Woodside Priory eighth- grader David Bessin poses with U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Museums and monuments, U.S. Supreme Court justices and Japanese drummers were the order of the day when eighth-graders from Woodside Priory School visited Washington, D.C., April 4-8.

David Bessin of Los Altos and Ali Goodyear and Lani Wenger from Los Altos Hills joined their classmates on the trip, which included an audience with Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Meeting Ginsburg was one of the highlights of the trip, according to David. President Bill Clinton appointed Ginsburg to the Supreme Court in August 1993.

She was very nice,” David said. “She talked about what she does in her different roles and her hardest cases.”

The class visited the Smithsonian National Postal Museum, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and the International Spy Museum.

On their last night, they attended a performance by the Tamagawa University Taiko Drumming and Dance troupe featuring Japanese drummers and dancers on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center.

David managed to overcome the “very difficult task” of getting to school at 5 a.m. to catch a plane to Washington, but he said it was definitely worth it.