The whirlwind tour of Washington DC has concluded. We rolled back into town early this morning. The group (57 kids and adults) packed up the bus and hit the road (an hour late) by around 7pm last Wednesday, then drove all night as we all tried to sleep in small, narrow seats that didn't recline very much. The neck pillows didn't help much at all either. Beth and I did doze some, but we were in the very back row of the bus and thus had even less room/reclining. I did wake up at one point because the bathroom door was banging open and shut because someone had set it to lock when it was open, therefore it wouldn't close. I also woke up one time with some kid's (from across the aisle) feet stretched onto my lap. Anyway, we got to a breakfast buffet restaurant around 7 or so, which wasn't exactly a truck stop, but a place that catered to tour buses. Strangely, they had only 2 sets of very small bathrooms for the 8 buses that were there by the time we left. We were all able to get changed and cleaned up, mostly because we were the first ones there. Right after breakfast we started the tour in earnest. Walking through the FDR memorial and MLK memorial first, then hoofing up Capitol Hill to do a tour of the Capitol including the House, which was not in session. Lunch was a walk down to the food court at Grand Central Station. After lunch, the Vietnam, Korea, and WWII memorials (then skip the Nat'l Archives because everyone was beat), then the White House (no tour, only go-see). We checked into the hotel around 8:30 and everyone needed showers, then Friday was an early day again. Ford's Theater first (just for a short Ranger talk, it seemed too much waiting), then the Washington Monument and hoofing it back to the Capitol for a group photo. Lunch at the station again. After lunch, the Holocaust Museum (just Daniel's Story, a bit simplistic and a little disappointing that we didn't get to see the rest), then a lot of walking through Arlington Cemetery (including all the way up the hill to the Lee Mansion). And yes...we got to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns on D-Day. The guard called out someone in the crowd during his patrol ("IT IS REQUESTED THAT EVERYONE REMAIN SILENT!") but not from our group, thankfully. Dinner was at Pentagon City Mall food court, then a night tour of the Air Force, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Iwo Jima Memorials. Saturday morning we headed up to Mount Vernon, which was also a lot of standing in line for what we got to see, but nice. They even have a 4-D movie now. We did lunch at Pentagon City again and skipped the 9/11 Memorial because everyone was too tired again, then headed right to the Smithsonian area, where we split into groups depending on what everyone wanted to see. We saw the Air & Space, Natural History (Alex wanted to see the Hope Diamond, but I think he thought it would be bigger than it was), and American History Museums in about 3 hours. After that, we hit the road again and ate after about an hour on the road. We all changed into jammies somewhere in Maryland. If anything it was even worse coming back home as far as sleeping goes, but I finally nodded off somewhere in Ohio and woke up in Columbia City. We finally made it to town around 5:30am. We were going to drop Rebekah off but her mom was already there;someone texted her and woke her up. Once home, everyone went back to bed and slept until at least 11:00.