We started out early for the White House, a definite highlight for me! I requested tours over a month ago and we were lucky enough to have one today. What an amazing experience, but I am jumping ahead of myself.
The most nerve wracking part of this whole trip is the transportation. I am a small town girl, only ridden on the public transportation system in Disney and once or twice in STL, for crying out loud. So the idea of getting myself and 4 boys around a strange place on a metro train sort of freaked me out. The boys were great, though. We parked at the station, got a prime parking spot, bought our passes (with the help of a very nice station manager), got on the train (had to stand the whole way thanks to rush hour), made the transfers and arrived at our destination! WOOHOO! I was patting myself on the back, walking down the street and realized....we went the wrong way to the White House. Oops.
Anyway, once of the nice people who commented on my boy's matching shirts pointed us in the right direction.
Sidebar here: Yes...I put the boys in matching shirts so I can FIND them. Hello! I'm outnumbered 4 to 1 here. Still, it brought much joy to all that my boys matched. 
We found the White House with relative ease (once we were walking in the right direction) and talked to a very nice secret service police person who showed us how to get to the entrance for our tour. Of course, we were 2 hours early, so we had some time to kill.
We ended up walking down to the Washington Monument, walked around it, viewed the Capitol, Lincoln Memorial and Jefferson Memorial from the spot, lamented the fact that Johnny wasn't there and started our walk back. We did have to stop and spend a ridiculous amount of money on hot dogs and pretzels because my boys were (and I quote) "famished." We walked past a ton of tour buses and were waved at by most of the drivers. BUT, as we walked past the last one I heared on their radio "MAN, I bet she has her hands full..." Seriously.
About an hour and a half later, we made it back to the WH and hung out in the park until a policeman on a bike told me they had to close the park down and to please head on over to our tour. I didn't think much about that....just went on over. As we were walking towards the entrance, we were asked to wait off to the side. Still didn't think anything of it. We were let in, showed them my ID, went through the security, endured 3 more "are you brothers?" comments and began our trek into the WH. On our way, though, I noticed some Secret Service with some pretty heavy artillery. I pointed this out to the boys and thought to myself, "Wow, they really have tight security here, even more visibly than I expected!"
We began our tour of the WH and started walking down the hall. We looked out the window and what did we see? MRS. OBAMA outside playing with their new dog! WHAT??? Hence the heavy artillery and park closures and on and on. The boys were so excited. Who am I kidding? I WAS SO EXCITED! I got a little shaky! We stood at the window for a very long time just watching. I have some philosophical thoughts about this but, I'll discuss that later. Right now I'm just pretty stoked to have seen the First Lady. And the First Dog.
The Tour was amazing. The Mansion is beautiful. The Secret Service Members were incredibly helpful (and apparently it is a requirement that you must be very handsome to serve). They still had the room set up from yesterday's announcement of the Supreme Court nominee (which was awesome to see). We learned so much! Did you know the WH is 6 stories? That it has a floral shop and a dentist office? 28 working fireplaces and 32 bathrooms? We do. :)
On the way out, we watched the piano be tuned. Outside the WH, we looked up and saw one of those light catchers (you know, the kind you make at VBS?) hanging in an upstairs window. It was a beautiful butterfly. I asked one of the guards whose room that was. He winked at me and told me he couldn't tell me. But you and I both know, right? Can you imagine being so little and living in that mansion? Wow.
We made it back to the train station and got back to our van with only 2 slight problems. 1. I needed to buy a smartrip card to pay to get out of the parking lot. The machine ate my money.
2. Apparently the prime parking spot I found earlier wasn't so prime and I got a lovely little ticket. Nice.
Oh well. You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have _____. You can fill in the blank.
Tomorrow is our tour of the Capitol Building and the Library of Congress. We have to be there at 8:15 in the morning. YIKES!
And yes....the boys will match. Yes, they are all mine. Yes, they are brothers. No, they are not twins. Yes, I do have my hands full.
Wouldn't have it any other way.
1 comment:
Loving the updates!!!! Keep them coming!
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