Orange Ridge-Bullock Elementary School students take on Washington, D.C.

BRADENTON -- Twenty-three Manatee County fifth-grade students are taking in the sights, sounds and history of the nation's capital, and according to Orange Ridge-Bullock Principal Maribeth Mason, they're enjoying every second of it.

The students took off for their excursion after meeting at the Bradenton school at 4:45 a.m. Tuesday before heading to Tampa International Airport and landing at Dulles International Airport at 10:30 a.m.

And how's the trip so far?

"Great!" reported Mason in a text message.

The trip is being led by Nuris Fanning, a 2015 Teacher of the Year finalist who teaches English for speakers of other languages at the Title I school.

For the past two years, Fanning has gotten funds from a Martin Luther King Jr. grant at the State College of Florida to take children to Atlanta during the MLK holiday. The students were able to learn about the nation's history before they traveled. After the second year, the school administrators wanted to challenge themselves to do something even bigger.

The school raised more than $20,000 to fund the trip,

assistant principal Mary Shapiro told the Manatee County School Board Tuesday.

Fanning has helped organize trips for schoolchildren in Broward and Miami-Dade counties through Explore America, a division of Education First. The three-day trip is set up by the organization and a tour guide accompanies the group for the entire tour. Many of the tour guides are former teachers, said company spokesman Adam Binkleman, and the company tries to focus on "the moments between the monuments."

Washington is one of the most popular sites to visit, but Explore America has trips across the county, with field offices in many of those locations. The tour director stays with the traveling group for the duration of the trip.

Highlights of the trip include photo stops at the White House and Washington Monument; visits to Arlington National Cemetery, FDR Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial; and watching the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The students return Thursday to Florida.

This story was originally published May 11, 2016 at 11:37 PM with the headline "Orange Ridge-Bullock Elementary School students take on Washington, D.C. ."