White House Holiday Tour 12/1/12

 

 

I had never before toured the White House. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to do so this past weekend.

 

This is one of the first trees I saw, on the lower level in the West Wing.  The face peeking out behind it is a bust of Lincoln.

 

 

This is still on the lower level, in the hallway. The picture doesn't really do it justice. You can also see how crowded it was. Difficult for a 5'2" person to get ANY photos!

 



 

This is the State Dining Room, with Lincoln's portrait over the fireplace.

 

This is also in the State Dining Room. The replica is made of white chocolate. Hard to see in this photo, but Bo the dog is at the left front side.

 

I think this is a great shot of the "front" of the House.  My guest took it with her camera, which was much better than my Blackberry that doesn't even have a flash.

 



B'day

The Mansion on O Street

Recently, some friends and I toured the Mansion on O Street. In a word...AMAZING.  61 hidden doors...30,000 square feet of funky, beautiful eclecticism! Like falling down The Rabbit Hole. Seriously! Rooms within rooms, tons of Rock-n-Roll memorabilia, bathrooms not to be believed...SENSORY OVERLOAD!  And everything's for sale, except for the signed guitars -- and there are plenty of those. There are artists-in-residence, one of whom was our hostess. She has lived there for 30 years. There are many photos/paintings of "H" (how she's known) throughout the Mansion.  Clearly, she was a beauty back when.

We were there for more than 2 hours and could have remained longer except that we were truly overwhelmed and simply couldn't take any more in. I plan to return for another tour, because I know I missed a lot. The few pix I am posting barely scratch the surface.  They were taken with my smartphone, on the fly.