Arriving mid-day, we were raring to go. We cranked out two Smithsonian museums, Air and Space and the Natural History museum, the first afternoon. By the end of our stay, we had visited even the Hirshhorn modern art museum.
Despite being in our nation's capital over the Fourth of July weekend, the next day proved to be the most memorable day of our trip. In the morning, we got an early start because we had tickets to tour the White House. These tickets are hard to get. It is recommended one request tour tickets from your senator or representative up to six months in advance. Since we were a couple months behind in our planning, I made requests to both senators and our representative. Just wanted to cover all bases, you know. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson came through for us.
I had read that if the President was in residence, the U.S. flag would be raised at the White House. All flags in the city were at half-mast in respect to Senator Robert Byrd's passing, so I was unsure if the President was home. As we were going through clearance, Marine One, the presidential helicopter flew over us and landed on the White House lawn. I asked a guard if that meant the President was home and he replied, “Until he gets on that helicopter, he is.” Once through clearance, we ran to the walkway just outside the east entrance. We joined several families all leaning over shrubs hoping to get a glimpse of the President. And we would have, if a secret service guy, dressed in black, with all kinds of guns and scopes around his neck, hadn't come out of nowhere and told us to move on. We were forced to enter the White House! Tareq and Michaele Salahi, eat your heart out.
Once inside the east wing, hallways were lined with other visitors waiting to see the President's exit. We kept rushing from window to window, hoping to see over several heads in front. As the helicopter's blades began to circle, I caught a glimpse, for a split second. And in that moment, the President, having stopped to wave, turned to walk up the steps of the helicopter and I SAW THE BACK OF THE PRESIDENT'S HEAD!
After all the excitement, the tour was anti-climactic. We saw the red room, the blue room, the green room and the state dining room. But I saw the back of the President's head and my daughter moped for an hour because she did not.
An easier tour to arrange through your elected officials, is the U.S. Capital. We received tour times from all three of our members of congress. The senators sent the specific reservation ticket, however, Joe Barton, our representative, instructed us to arrive at his congressional office. I suspected that this would be a more personal tour, led by one of his aides, so since the timing worked well, we spent the afternoon on Capital Hill.
At the appointed time, we worked our way to the Rep. Barton's office in one of the three adjacent House of Representatives office buildings. The aides were all in Barton's small outer office chatting. Being the Friday, before the July 4 weekend, I suspect they were killing time until the week was over. And they were probably recovering from putting out fires from their boss's recent comment regarding the White House's “shakedown” of BP.
As a Democrat, in the conservative state of Texas, I felt a little strange requesting favors from Republican members of congress, but what choice did I have?
When we identified ourselves and stated we were there for the 2:00 PM tour of the Capital, the aide behind the desk jumped to his feet.
Aide: We tried to call you yesterday. We had to move the tour to 10 AM this morning.
Me: Oh, we were already in Washington yesterday.
Aide: Well, someone answered the phone at your home and hung up on us.
Me: That was my brother. He is house sitting while we are gone.
Aide: We called back a second time, but before we could state why we were calling, he yelled at me and told me never to call again. So, I sent you an email.
How do I explain, that as a yellow dog Democrat, my hard-of-hearing brother, probably thought Joe Barton's office was calling to solicit campaign funds. I just chuckled. The aide graciously agreed to get us tickets to tour the Capital even though we had missed the private tour.
Another aide, walked us through the maze of underground hallways from the Rayburn House Office Building to the Capital's underground entrance. For a few minutes we felt important as we wore a special badge on our shirts. But the tour of the Capital is so restricted and the crowds so great, that the highlight was the ordeal getting inside! My only regret was not asking the young aide if he was dealing with any more shakedowns!
I called my brother that evening from the hotel. “If Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson calls, please be nice, okay!”
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