White House Tour

Well, we got up at 6, left just before 7, and made it to the line by 7:25, just in time for our 7:30 am White House tour. It was frigid...Right now the temperature is still in the 20's, so I'm not sure exactly HOW cold it was this morning, but it was miserably cold. The tour was a self guided thing...no one person leading us around and talking, which was nice, and I ended up ahead of Norman, Jason and Heather and then hung out at the exit waiting for them. We saw the Green Room, the Red Room, the Blue Room, the formal dining room where they have state dinners and stuff, and then a couple other rooms. I will say that the rooms are much smaller than you think they are. They are tall floor to ceiling wise, but as far as square footage they are much smaller than I expected.

We got to see the only painting that is left from the first White House, which was saved by Dolly Madison (I think). It is a portrait of George Washington, and Dolly Madison either pulled it down off the wall herself or had someone else do it so that it could be saved. The art was beautiful...it was a great little tour, although little is the operative word. We didn't see much - they don't open up very much for you to see, but at least it was something.

Apparently since Sept 11th, the approval of tours is only 15 percent of the actual people who want them. If you go thru your Congressman's office (which is how we got ours...thru Norman's work) you have a greater chance of getting selected for one, but I had no idea that the number was so small. We were fortunate to get to do the tour.

So Norman is back at work now, Jason and Heather are listening to some arguments going on at the Supreme Court, and I am still trying to thaw out. I think I'm going to crank up my heater, crawl under my comforter and take a nap. We have dinner reservations for a cool place tonight that is across from the Treasury Building, it's called Old Ebbitt Grille. It's soooo nice, and a hotspot for politicians so maybe we'll run across someone we recognize. That will be fun! Okay, time for me to go thaw...adios!