White House, Here We Come!

This past weekend, Mom, MaeMae and Hudson came up to visit.  Hudson was a surprise for the boys and they were so excited to see him.  I've been asking my friends up here about things we could do and Eliza, whose husband works for a Rep. Tim Graves from Georgia, said Tim could get up passes to the Capitol with a private tour.  I was so excited about this but then she trumped herself and said he could probably get us passes to the White House, too!  It was crazy.  Luckily Tim was sitting right there at the dinner table during this conversation and agreed to it all.

So, Thursday everyone arrived and Friday bright and early we headed out the door.  Our tour was as 8am for the White House so we left my house at 6:45.  My wonderful friend, Erika, kept Collins for me since we only had passes for six.  After finding (what we thought was) a great parking space, we started walking and walking and walking.  We were suppose to arrive at 8am but we got to the gate at 8:15.  Thankfully, they let us in to go through about 5 different security check points.  We were all dressed nicely but all the other visitors had on tennis shoes and sweatshirts.  I mean, I knew we weren't going to meet the President or anything, but I, at least, thought we should show some respect to the house of our President.

 This was taken in the parking garage.  See their enthusiasm?  This was before they realize their day was going to be a lot of walking and seeing things they didn't have any interest in.  Reminds me when Mom and Dad sent us to Italy for the summer when I was in 4th grade.  Could totally care less about the history I saw- same thing with these three.

 We had to leave pocketbooks, cameras, etc. in the car.  Nothing was allowed in except your phone but if you used it to take a picture the secret service would confiscate it and you had to bring identification.  We got to see several rooms (blue room, green room, banquet hall, receiving hall) but we also got to see a lot of portraits, some Presidential china, etc.  I can't really remember it all and they didn't hand out brochures to help you remember either.  It went fast and was really cool just to say we've been in the White House.  Unfortunately, David had to work and missed this opportunity.  Hopefully, we'll get it again and can take more visitors. 

 Outside the White House using my iPhone.  Not great but it's all I had.

After the White House, we had a great breakfast and then headed to the Capitol.  At this point, Banks fell asleep which would not have been so bad if I had had the stroller.  So, I carried him for about 45 minutes throughout the Capitol.  We went to Rep. Tim Graves' office where one of his interns was ready for us.  I can't remember the intern's name but he went to Auburn so that was pretty cool.  We walked through the tunnel that leads to the Capitol and he gave us a private tour.  We got to skip lines, go through private doors, and get a really personal tour.  We were able to squeeze in a viewing of the floor of the House of Representatives.  We still have Senate passes but didn't have time to use them.  I had to get back to relieve Erika of babysitting duties.

The only downfall of Friday was that we parked forever away and we didn't have our wallets with us to even hail a cab.  Mom's shoes were killing her and at one point she and Hudson were walking in their socks, that is until they hit some acorns.  We finally made it back to the car with three exhausted boys and three exhausted women.

It was a great Friday.