Several Carlisle and Madison high school students may have an excuse if they fall asleep today in class: They’ve been a little busy.

For the past five days, 39 students from Carlisle, Madison and Butler Tech toured Washington, D.C., visited numerous museums and ended their trip by attending the inauguration Monday afternoon of President Barack Obama. The students arrived back in Carlisle late Tuesday night, exhausted, but thankful for the educational experience, they said.

The group stood about 300 yards from President Obama during the ceremony, said AJ Huff, spokeswoman for Madison Schools. The students watched most of the swearing-in ceremony on a nearby Jumbotron, she said.

“It was really wonderful,” Huff said Tuesday afternoon while on the bus traveling back to Ohio. “Just being there was interesting. There were so many people; that was an experience.”

She was impressed that the more than 800,000 people were respectful during Obama’s address.

“They were completely focused on him and his words, what the moment was all about,” she said. “It was a trip to be remembered.”

Dylan Brown, a senior at Madison, said the atmosphere at the inauguration was “pretty awesome.” When Obama was introduced, he said he got the chills.

“It was just so much different in person than on TV,” said Brown, who added he’s “not a fan” of the president. “It was incredible just being there.”

He also enjoyed the World War II Memorial, a place he also visited as an eighth-grader. Four years later, he took the time to research his grandfather, Kenny Brown, a WWII Army veteran.

Shelby Sloneker, a senior at Carlisle, said throughout Obama’s inauguration speech, a protester sat in a nearby tree and screamed at Obama. She said it was “amazing” to see the sea of people.

“Just being able to see Obama was memorable,” she said. “It was an experience for sure.”

The students also watched the Inauguration Parade, which included the Miami University marching band, and visited the Newseum, National Museum of Health and Medicine, Holocaust Museum and took a night tour of the monuments.