9:10PM. All safe...

... here at the Comfort Inn, though not exactly quiet, yet, despite my most diligent efforts. It's amazing to me how the same phenomenon happens every year: Thanks to the lack of sleep on the bus, all day the kids are dragging and weary. One told me today that if he had to take another step his feet would fall off. I'm afraid my reaction disappointed him -- I said that would be interesting. Anyway, no matter how exhausted they are throughout the day, and no matter how sincere their intentions to sleep tonight, once their feet hit the hotel carpet it's like throwing a bunch of jumping beans into a jar. I've been trying to keep the lid on that jar the last couple hours. I think maybe things have finally settled down, but I don't want to jinx it by actually relaxing. Not yet, anyway.


This morning they seemed especially tired compared to prior years; I'm not sure if we actually got that much less sleep or if I was simply imagining the difference. For the most part, they fought off the fatigue and managed pretty well at Gettysburg. The first hour was a too-much-info-too-fast and that was especially hard as we all struggled to stay focused and awake. The second hour provided for some fun exploring of some of the memorials and battlegrounds.

Then we drove into DC. Our lunch today was one of the (regrettable, in my opinion) times when we were scheduled to eat in a shopping mall. Maybe I was mistaken, but it seemed to me that the kids did a better job than past years of controlling their spending when they walked around after eating.

After that we drove to the National Cathedral, where we split into three groups because we chaperones thought that would allow for more meaningful and interactive touring. It worked pretty well, until I got a serious dressing down by one of the staffers for breaking the rules (we hadn't meant to do so, though in retrospect I see why they were upset that we weren't going through as one big group).

Following the Cathedral, we spent the next couple of hours in various smaller groups of the kids' choosing. Some opted to skip the National Zoo and headed straight for the neighborhood of Adams Morgan, where they chose from a number of different dinner venues. Other groups chose first to spend some time at the zoo, then they headed out for supper. We four chaperones stayed spread out in the two areas, trying to be as accessible and helpful as possible. Cell phones sure are handy (until mine died, anyway). According to some of the kids, my skills as a cartographer are a bit limited. I contend that it's their map reading skills (and text reading skills) that were lacking. Anyway, whereas I had typed "go downhill," they had instead headed uphill, ending up on the opposite side of the zoo, but between our cell conversations and some competent re-routing on their side, they managed to find an alternate route and soon joined the rest of us in Adams Morgan. It was neat to see a number of kids try to stretch their boundaries beyond national chains when eating dinner. I don't recall offhand who all ate where, but I do know that Collin, Samuel, Nikki and Nikohl all tried falafel (and I think all liked it). We'd seen the same adventuresome spirit today at lunch when Josh, Kyle, Rob and Jim tried sushi.

I know that the other chaperones and I got some great pictures and videos today. I'm too tired to upload them now, but will do so tomorrow or as soon as possible. Tomorrow is our earliest day of the week -- we'll leave the hotel by 7:45AM and head to Arlington Nat'l Cemetary. In the afternoon we'll tour the Capitol building and hit some memorials before spending the evening in Dupont Circle, playing outdoor games like bocce ball. One of the draws for us to Dupont Circle is the statue of Gandhi just a couple blocks away. Since that was a pretty meaningful part of the curriculum for a number of the kids when they were in seventh grade, I'm looking forward to spending some time with them there.

Hopefully we'll get pics up soon. Right now I'm going to cross my fingers than the quiet will last a while and start getting ready for bed.

Till next time...