Our trip to "The White House"

Hi all...

We went to the Downtown area,last weekend. As per our plan, we started by 10am, after our breakfast from our apartment. We went to the nearest Metro station,boarded a train to Farragut North. We reached the station and came out and surprised to see, some 20 young girls were practising bands for different tunes. Very happy to see their practise with great enthusiasm. Took some snaps and walked towards "The White House". On the way, we saw beautiful lawns with flowers and some barricaded gardens too. First we saw the rear side of the White House.


We walked on the sidewalk towards Eisenhower-Executive building, which is in the next compound. We also saw the memorial of the First infantry Division and walked few yards, we reached the Ellipse-Huge,beautiful green lawn in ellipitical shape with the National Chirstmas Tree. We walked further nearer to the white house, to our surprise... we were given passes to enter the White House Compound at 1245pm. With the passes in the hand, saw the clock - it was only 1120am. So we had an hour to go inside the White House . So we thought, we can walk further on the side-walks of the Ellipse and see the beauty of Washington Monument in a clear, bright day. On the way, we saw the DC Ducks - A bus for visitors in DC, which can run on the road as bus and in water (Potomac River) as a boat .

From there, we walked few metres, we reached the World War -II Memorial and the Reflecting pool and Lincoln memorial. We had a glimpse of the Reflecting pool full of ducks of different sizes and colours and we did not go near the Lincoln Memorial (May be in our next trip, we will go inside the Memorial !! ). Now the time was 12 noon. We thought, it is better that we should be back to the White House entry for the tour. So we sat on a bench and had some snacks and started walking back towards the White House.


Reached the White House on time, we went inside after some security checks. Saw many trees planted by various Presidents, their First Ladies. Took some snaps of the trees, which were planted by Mr.Franklin D. Roosevelt and Mr. George W. Bush. They are having a beautiful green lawn with Tulip flowers, fountains.

They were having many gardens inside the White House. The East Garden is known as the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden. Also we saw the Rose Garden, located just outside of the Oval Office. We could see the garden (Children's Garden) for the children at the White House, came to know that it was created by Lady Bird Johnson. A beautiful Tennis court was also there inside.

At around 2pm, we came out of the White House and walked back the same path towards the Metro station. On the way, we saw "Subway" had a Veggie Max and Coke.

Enjoyed a lot !! I am very happy to share some snaps of our trip to the White House.

Dear all...

Posting some more photos....

Dear Gowri,

It was really lovely to read your trip to the White House. It is almost a year since we visited DC and we did visit almost all the places.

But I wonder, they did not allow us inside the White House and we could take pictures only from outside.

So, do we need to take special permission days before to go inside? How did you go inside for the White House tour? Were you accompanied by any special delegates or officers for this?

As for Capitol Building, they did give us a pass later in the day, but since we had to return back, we took pictures only from outside. What about you?

Anyway , nice to see the pictures upclose and inside the premises too !!

Looks like you had a fun and enjoyable day !!

Cheers
Krithika

Dear Krithika,

Only on few days (3-4) in a year, they allow public to enter the compound. Fortunately, we were given "free" passes on that day. So we could go inside the compound.

Are you able to see the plastic chair in their balcony ????

Yet, to have a trip to Capitol. Will have to plan for another weekend... !!

Love, Gowri

Hi Gowri,

You are lucky to see inside the white house. I have been to DC 3 times, but could
not go inside the white house.Here are 2 pictures

Hi Vidhyalakshmid,

As you have rightly said, we were lucky that day.

Thanks for sharing your pictures. Capitol building is really elegant.

Gowri dearYour writeup about your trip is very nice and entertaining.. So glad you could go in. The pictures rock my friend.. Keep writing..

Dear AC Madam,

Thanks a lot for your appreciation... This is my first trip to US, but for my hubby, this is his second trip. I was just kidding him ... because of my presence, he could go inside the compound of the White House.

With love,

hi gowri...

pics are cool... your write up abt the trip was really intersting to read... thnx for sharing dear...

hi gowri,

lucky yar....really shud be a memorable foto and trip for u....me to visited few months bak but didnt hav the chance to go inside...god to know about those free pass...hope it helps others too...thanks for sharing