Super tired when we woke up. Most of the zombies came down to breakfast and got on the bus and went back to sleep immediately. We got into D.C. and went to MLK, FDR, George Mason, and Thomas Jefferson's memorials. Mason's memorial looks as I expected it...run down, flowers dying, grass had been cut but blown into the flower beds, fountain was not running and water was green. He is truly a forgotten founding father. The kids were very sluggish this morning and I had to really pry answers out of them. The Day 8 curse begins.....

The sluggishness continued throughout the day. We went to the Smithsonians today and we split off into groups. I took ten girls to the Natural History museum becuase they wanted to see the Hope Diamond and the jewels. We also spent some time watching a tarantula get fed, saw the giant squid and the giant jaws, among other things. I was not nearly as impressed with Natural History museum as I am with the National History, or Air and Space. The rest of my kids went to the air and space museum.

We finished there and ate lunch at the Capital. I never like eating there because it is always very expensive. My lunch was $17. After lunch we had enough time to go to the Exhibition Hall at the Capital. I had never been to this and there was a scavenger hunt that I put my kids on. They really had fun and were able to learn a little as well. In addition, I was able to pick up enough U.S. Capital workbooks and activity sheets for the entire group for later. I gave these to the kids on the way to Williamsburg to work on. We took our tour. It was the same as always...the Crypt, the Rotunda, which was my favorite, and the Statue Room. Our tour guide did not show the whispering spot, which made me glad that we did that in NYC at Grand Central Terminal. After the Capital tour, our guide talked too long and we could not get into the Library of Congress because it was closed. So we took pictures outside instead, which was disappointing. It was very hot and humid and we didn't have our backpacks because of being in the Capital, so we had no water with us. We took our pictures of the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court Building, and the Captial and got back on the bus. We went to the White House to take pictures and got the secret service guys that were using spotting scopes to wave at us.

We ate at Fuel Pizza. They had great garlic knots, but the pizza wasn't great. They had excellent salad, though. Here's where the Curse of Day 8 begins. I knew Beth had been dealing with stomach problems, but we hadn't had any problems up to this point. She started throwing up over and over and feeling very badly. While this was going on, we were having issues with David and Darren and a girl back home. Beth got very sick and I had to stay with her while the other group leaders took the others to the Vietnam, Lincoln, and Korean memorials. She threw up more at the hotel, but was ok the next day. I had to have the "Day 8" powwow with Darren and David and cleared their drama up. I'm getting ready to head home, for sure.