Michelle and her family were in town for the White House Easter Egg Roll and asked if I could give them a tour of the Capitol on Tuesday (3/25). Of course!!! Anything to break the day up and roam around the coolest Capitol ever! She also scheduled a White House tour for her and her folks and asked if I wanted to come along. Of course!!! It is, after all, the people’s house.
Our tour was scheduled for 10:00 and because of security I just went from my house to the White House bypassing work altogether. Thank goodness we were on recess. I’ve been to the White House several times. Twice for a West Wing tour given by a friend who works in the press office. He was very knowledgeable and had some great stories and info to tell about the WH. So those tours were awesome. Plus we got to see the Oval Office. Don’t tell the secret service, but I accidentally slipped my foot a little past the threshold into the Oval Office – twice. Another time, I went to work with Mel when she was the holiday assistant (pretty much the coolest job ever because you’re working at the WH at Christmas time!!!) I pretty much saved the day for the Hanukah Party (a story for a different time) and after Mel and I worked, we went to the East Wing to see all the Christmas decorations. It was pretty Ah-MAZING!
So this tour that we had scheduled was for the East Wing – minus the Christmas decorations. It was still pretty awesome, but what I missed was a tour guide telling me some cool stories and inside info about what happened in these rooms and a little history about, oh I don’t know, say the color selections. Why red, blue and green? How come not purple, pink and orange? So minus the no tour guide thing, the East Wing is pretty spectacular. If you stand there and think of all the presidents from our country and others who have passed through these halls, you can’t help but be astounded. I was astounded. Seriously think about it. Abe Lincoln lived there. I probably walked were Abe Lincoln once walked. I was standing where Teddy Roosevelt probably once stood thinking about which piece of lands to designate as National Park Land.
About an hour and a half after breathing in about two hundred years worth of American Presidential history, we all headed over to Union Station for a bite to eat. Then it was off to my work. By now it’s 1:30 and Troy and Karen have to leave by 3:00 to get off to their flight back to Arizona. We went downstairs through the elaborate tunnel system connecting Congress to the House and Senate office buildings and the Library of Congress. Tons of other people were in town, so there was quite a line to get into the Capitol.
We finally made it through and headed to the Crypt to see where Washington was first interred before being moved to Mt. Vernon. Next, we quickly dashed to the House Floor so Karen and Troy could see that before they had to leave. After we said goodbye to the two, we resumed with the rest of the tour. I’ve only given a tour to Sam and Steve before so my knowledge about the various paintings and frescos is quite unpolished. Luckily, Michelle’s family was pretty content with just taking in the enormity and awesomeness of it all.
By the time we finished up with the tour there was only about an hour left until quitting time. I checked emails and shuffled through some papers before calling it a day. And then I met Michelle and her folks for dinner at Bullfeathers around 7:30. Hanging with pals at the White House and Capitol – not a bad day at all!
