Our flight launched in the direction of the Capitol Mall, the back half of Congress that we hadn’t explored. As we walked along the mall, we noticed many sculptures made of metal, reflecting the sunlight and displaying a variety of animals in our region. As people walked about with their briefcases and on their busy phone calls, we wandered at our own pace, playing and laughing as we made our way through the maze of construction and eventually onto 15th Street.

The lawn was exceptionally quaint this time of morning, and the squirrels were having a field day! After weaving through the trails and around the front of the Capitol, we ended up in a familiar area on Congress.

By the time we made it to that familiar area, a couple of flyers opted to get lunch at Chipotle, because it had been suggested for weeks without much interest from others. We were also expecting one of our fliers to arrive late and figured it would be a place to sit and hang for a while. Some of us just got refreshing drinks, and others ate lunch. We stayed and chatted a while and eventually decided to get back outside. By this time, ice cream was mentioned… And we’d figured out in the past weeks that ice cream shops could be kind of expensive, but a convenience store was far more within the budget. We departed for CVS!

We sat all together, eating various forms of cold icy treats as our late arrival appeared. We talked over everyone’s ideas about how to spend the rest of our day, and this particular flight was group activity week, so we chose to head into Punch Bowl Social for a bit of bowling, hanging out, snacking, and making micro Mukbang films! We spent most of our day here before we realized our hefty walk back to our parting spot was going to take a w h i l e. The sun was high and HOT! The walk back wasn’t an easy one, but we paced ourselves, continuing to check in and eventually arriving to all of the parents patiently waiting. Another flight for the books!