Day Five -- the Finale

After cleaning up the hotels rooms and repacking all our stuff back onto the bus, we headed to Eastern Market for brunch. It's a favorite amongst DC locals -- especially the upwardly-mobile professional class. A number of students chose to wait in line for almost an hour with the other chaperones and me to order from "the crepe guy." I was worried that his sophisticated offerings would disappoint, but Miller-Boy said it was the best meal of his life (for what it's worth, I think he might have said the same thing later in the day at Ben's...)

It was bad timing that I was involved with a small crisis when Alex O. and friends bought a pig's foot and snuck it into my backpack; normally I would've appreciated the joke but it wasn't until later that I was able to mentally give them the props they deserved.

After Eastern Market, we stopped at the White House, where, as usual, the "crazy lady" was as much if not more an attraction for the kids than the mansion housing the top of our executive branch.

Then we visited the Jefferson Memorial, where we tried -- rather unsuccessfully -- to take a group photo since the company that normally takes our official group shot had canceled on us last minute.

The kids were ready then for a some non-informative time, so we spent a little while at a park where some played soccer and other games, and some just sat around and chilled (and I finally got some good candid shots of Andrew and Carl!).

We ended our time in DC at Ben's Chili Bowl -- every the local favorite of Eastern Market but catering to a pretty different clientele.