Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Project365: Day 263 - Washington DC - Day 4

The second very excellent tour that we were able to take, courtesy of Senator Charles Grassley's office, was our rainy morning tour of the White House. After stopping by a convenience store to buy a couple of umbrellas (not sure how we forget to pack them), we went to our designated entry point for our tour. Yet again, no cameras were permitted inside the White House premises.

Once cleared through two security checkpoints, our tour entered the White House through the lower level of the East Wing. The hallways and rooms were full of famous paintings, Presidential portraits, and some non-presidential portraits. Many of the presidents were painted posing with some relevant, important object--a copy of the constitution to demonstrate their commitment to upholding the law, a globe to symbolize their international policy strength. The most prominent non-presidential portrait on display is that of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She, too, is posing with an object, though not one of any symbolic nature. In her portrait, her hand is resting on a copy of the book she wrote. Hanging in the same hallway as the previous portraits, it reads like a really terrible billboard advertisement. Interesting to note, however, was that her portrait was far more prominently displayed than her husband--the guy who was actually the President.

The most exciting part of the tour for me was that as we exited we passed through the front hall and right out the front door. I was tempted to step out and wave to the throng of tourists gathered a hundred yards away at the fence line as if I were someone they should be excited to see emerge from that doorway...

The Secret Service agent outside the front door let us know that we were permitted to use our cell phone cameras to take a photo now that we were outside the building. We asked one of the other ladies on our tour to snap a photo of us--right outside the door of the White House!

White House Tour

That evening, we returned to the Newseum once again. Though this time it was not to see the exhibits. Brittany's conference had scheduled a reception for all of their members at the Newseum for the evening.

Newseum Reception

One of the other conference attendees from Iowa was kind enough to use my camera and take a photo of Brittany and I on the Newseum's wonderful roof deck.

Capitol View

The view from up there is good during the daytime, but is nothing short of stunning late in the evening with the sun setting.

Newseum Roof Deck

Capitol City Traffic

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