Adjusting her cupcake-size replica of a Mikimoto gold-and-pearl crown and gliding through a downtown Washington hotel lobby in her white sash, Taylor Barfield offers her business card with a knowing grin: "First African-American United States Cherry Blossom Queen," it reads.

"Sorry if I'm groggy and my voice is hoarse, it's been nonstop," laughs last year's queen, a 19-year-old sophomore at Bowie State University in Bowie, Maryland.

In her final week of duty, she's had a schedule packed with as many as 12 hours of events every day in Washington — including the Japanese stone-lantern lighting at the blossom-fringed Tidal Basin, sorting donated clothing at the Bread for the City charity and reading to students at Cleveland Elementary School.