Gonna See It In Color: Redeeming week!!

This week was incredibly better than last week! Such a fantastic group of students and adults to work with!! It took them a while to get here, via bus, but they finally made it and we only had to adjust a few things to make their schedule work out.
This group was to be here around 9ish Monday night, and around 5:30 or so I got a text from the coordinator letting me know they were running a half hour late. Okay, that put them at the Center before 10, I was good with that. Next thing I know I'm getting a phone call saying their bus had broken down and they decided to stay at a nearby camp for the night rather than try and get a bus and travel to the Center. Again, that was fine by me because I didn't really want to deal with tired kids at midnight and expect them to be ready to go by 8 the next morning. I assumed that they would try and leave as soon as possible, so like 7 or 8 on Tuesday. It turns out they couldn't leave until 10, by the time a bus got there and everyone got their things loaded. I met them at Union Station because they had food vouchers for that day, and they got there around 3, so we decided to meet again after eating at 4 and head back to the Center. Of course, the bus driver didn't know his way around, so we walked all the way to the Capitol pick-up circle and down Madison (part of the National Mall) until the bus finally found us. I tell you, those kids were complaining, but it was a good stretch of the legs for them after riding on a bus for almost 20 hours total. We made it though, and after handing out name tags and keys, they had the option to grab some dinner and then we went on our Nightview excursion. This group was actually pretty good about keeping up, so I didn't really have to worry about repeats of last week.
Wednesday we started by going to Iwo Jima. I was really excited when the coordinator asked to let the kids get out and take pictures because I've never been able to do that! Then we continued on to Arlington, and they asked to try and find a gravestone which turned out to be close to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. By chance I grabbed a map of the cemetery when I checked the group in, so luckily we were able to find where it was at and go down there. It was a wonderful feeling to be able to help a group in that way. We followed Arlington by going to the Air and Space Museum for lunch and the remainder of the afternoon. Originally the plan was to walk up to the Library of Congress so that the kids could see it, but it started to rain and the coordinator decided against it, so we called the bus to come and get us. It was being worked on and it was going to be a while, but it stopped raining and the kids had asked to go souvenir shopping, so we went out and visited the street vendors with all sorts of DC things. The kids were happy and it killed time. By the time the bus got there the kids were well beyond tired and ready for a quiet break. We made it back to the Center and they had just over an hour to use up some energy (if they had any) and then get ready for the dinner cruise that night. The cruise was great fun, although hot and stuffy inside, so I spent a lot of it outside on the deck. All of the kids seemed to have a great time, and that's what mattered.
Thursday morning we drove by the White House, but didn't stop because we didn't have enough time. Then we made our way up to the Capitol building for their tour. We had a little bit of extra time before the tour, but they used it up quite well by making a pitstop and then getting all of the tickets switched to the same time, and then we went on a shortened tour in order for the group to make it out of the city at a decent time for their 12 hour bus ride home.