The West Wing

One thing that Sarah and I really wanted to do before leaving DC was tour the West Wing of the White House. They told us it was impossible, but as a true testament to how far begging will get you, we managed to get Staci Wheeler, a member of Bush's speech writing team, to give us a tour about 3 days before Obama became president.

This is a view from the Rose Garden of the Residence. Every morning the President walks from the Residence to the West Wing using this covered walkway.

Here is a shot of the outside of the oval office. I was really under impressed with the color scheme in the oval office, it was really lame. I expected bold blues or reds, but it was all pastels. Apparently Bush wanted colors to remind him of his ranch in Texas, I think it sends the wrong message. It totally wasn't how I'd pictured the oval office.

Sarah and I were really happy to be there. We've spent a lot of time around the White House during our time in DC, we used to live just 8 blocks away on Pennsylvania Avenue. It was really surreal to be standing in such a famous place.

Another shot of the walkway. Yes we spent a lot of time out there talking.

This is us standing at the door the Vice President enters each morning (or whenever he makes it down to the White House). I will say I've noticed the Biden motorcade much less than I noticed the Cheney motorcade. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the West Wing, so all our pictures were outside. Inside, there were hundreds of pictures of President Bush doing various official things.

Our only indoor picture was in the Press room. It was fun to see all the seat marked with placards for the various networks. They wouldn't let us stand at the podium unfortunately.

After touring the West Wing, we walked over to the Old Executive Office Building. For such an impressive facade, the inside of the building was unbelievably ugly. The walls are painted pinks and purples and it has old linoleum on the floors. This staircase was the only structural element worth noting.

All the rest of the walls had huge bundles of wires and Ethernet cables on the them.

Once up on the second floor, you get a pretty good view of the White House.

There was one cool room, I think it was called the "Indian Room" or something like that. Staci told us about some of the famous events that had happened there, but I've already forgotten. Sometimes, they mix it up and hold events there when they get tired of using the White House.

A big thank-you out to Staci Wheeler and a big check on our list of things we wanted to do in DC before we left.