The White House

What a long, but eventful, day. Thanks to Rob, we were able to get White House tour tickets on relatively short notice (we should have thought of it six months ago). We had a few hours before our tour time, so we visited the DAR Headquarters, just across the street from the White House. They have some exhibits, which need some refurbishing, and a wonderful old library room which has held its share of events, such as hearings and treaty negotiations, over the years. Its proximity to the White House and relative size made it a useful early meeting place. I am one proud HODAR (husband of a DAR member).

The White House "tour" was also short and sweet. Despite the tightest security of our trip (you cannot take ANYTHING in), we moved through the preliminaries pretty quickly. There is no actual tour guide - you merely shuffle through some corridors and the first-floor rooms of the House itself, where they have a few written materials for informational purposes and security guards that will answer some quick questions (they were no-nonsense types). You get the impression they do not want you to linger, but move quickly through the experience. I was surprised at how small the footprint of the White House really is and how "uninviting" it seems as a place to live. It would be like living in a museum, I suppose. The SWAT guys with the heavy weapons and the muzzled dogs patrolling the grounds were a little unnerving.

We were able to see the Library and the Vermeil Room on the lower floor, and all of the rooms on the next floor up.

We had some lunch in the brand new Ronald Reagan Office Complex. It is just a block or so down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. A very nice place to take a break and enjoy their food court.

A little further down the Avenue is the Old Postal Building. It has recently been refurbished and has a small mall inside with continuous live entertainment. Its big drawing card is its tower - the highest vantage point in the area. One of our best pictures of the trip, in my opinion, was taken here by KR. It is the view of the Capitol below. I love this picture.

We continued our stroll down the Avenue, past the FBI Building, then north to Ford's Theatre and the Pedersen House, where Lincoln was taken after the shooting and where he later succumbed. The scene has been preserved nicely.

Our last visits of the day were to the National Archives and the National American Art and Portrait Gallery. The Archives building was totally redone on the inside a few years ago and is a highlight. That is when they put in the protection mechanisms for the original Declaration of Independence and Constitution that are featured in the movie National Treasure. We were preceded by several busloads of school children that just beat us to security, so it took us quite a while to see the exhibits as they kids had to work their way through the lines. The documents themselves are a little disappointing, since little ink is left. They look like blank pieces of paper. The two buildings below are shown in the order mentioned above.