Washington 2023:
Day 19 - Washington, DC

	Thursday, August 31, 2023: We awoke refreshed and nervously excited about today's activities. Tom headed across the street to the Gallery Cafe, which we had seen on the walk from the Metro station the day before.
	He got everything bagels with cream cheese and lox for Debbie, and cream cheese and ham for himself, plus two of the largest Diet Cokes allowed by law.
	Just before 9:00 AM, we walked a block to the Sofitel Lafayette Square, which is where Audrey and Dean were staying.
	We sat in the lobby across from the elevators while we waited for them to come downstairs. Right at 9:00 AM, they popped out of the elevators, ...
	... and we started the walk to Sherman Park, ...
	... to line up for our White House tour. We had 9:30 AM tour tickets, and we were right on schedule.
	A park ranger checked our tickets, verified that we weren't carrying any bags, and let us through the first checkpoint.
	We walked around this monument dedicated to General Sherman. There are four soldiers at each corner, representing the four branches of the US Army: infantry, artillery, cavalry, and engineers.
	The path took us to an area not far from the statue of Alexander Hamilton that is right outside the south entrance to the Department of Treasury building.
	By 9:20 AM, we were at a second checkpoint, this time providing our tickets and government IDs to Secret Service agents, ...
	... which was followed by a short walk and a third checkpoint a few minutes later where our IDs were checked again. At this checkpoint, a group of about six people were waiting, apparently while their identies were being verified. The instructions when we applied for the tickets had been very clear that if the information you submitted for the tickets did not exactly match the information on your ID, your entry would be delayed and possibly even denied.
	Shortly after the third checkpoint, we entered the fenced area of the White House, and walked to the white building on the left.
	We went up a ramp, through this door, ...
	... and down this hallway where there was a metal detector and security screening.
	We then went back outside, walking between the White House on the left and the Treasury Building on the right.
	At the entrance to the East Wing, every group of people stopped to pose for a picture of themselves in front of the White House. While we waited for our turn, we took an ussie to mark the occasion, ...
	... and then handed our phone to someone in the next group who took our photo.
	We were inside the White House! Every room had one or two informational signs, but this is the only one we will show on this site.
	The walls in the East Wing Lobby were covered with oak paneling upon which were hung with photos showing the Bidens at various events. Debbie got a photo of Audrey ...
	... who got a photo of Debbie.
	We were giddy with excitement and took photos of everything, before continuing down the hallway ...
	... toward a group of paintings of First Ladies. This is Nancy Reagan, ...
	... Barbara Bush, ...
	... Betty Ford, ...
	... and Rosalynn Carter.
	Here's the view looking back toward the entrance.
	We reached the top of the stairs at the end of the East Wing Lobby, and transitioned to the start of the East Colonnade. There was a welcome message from President and Dr. Biden along with a chalkboard containing messages from educators, students, and families for the start of the 2023-2024 school year.
	There's a huge bust of Abraham Lincoln at this end of the colonnade.
	The East Wing was originally built in 1902 and enlarged in 1942 to provide office space. There were photos lining the right-hand wall, ...
	... and the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden visible through the windows on the left side.
	The garden contains seasonal flowers and was named for First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in 1965.
	There were easels with more photos of the Bidens in front of the windows.
	The right side of the hallway contained collages of official White House photos, showing various moments from different administrations. The oldest photo in this collage was President Truman pinning a medal on General Dwight Eisenhower in 1945, and the newest one was a photo from President Biden's inauguration in 2021.
	There was a photo in the top center of this collage showing President Biden and Vice President Harris wearing face masks during the COVID pandemic in 2021. This collage also has a photo of Queen Elizabeth II planting a tree at the White House in 1991, and Princess Diana dancing with President Reagan in 1985.
	This collage contained photos of First Families and their pets, most of which were dogs. There was one notable exception, however. The bottom right photo is of Grace Coolidge with her pet raccoon in 1920.
	Here's a closeup of the upper left photo from previous collage. It shows President Obama running down the hallway being chased by his dog in 2009. The photo had been taken from right where we were currently standing.
	About halfway down the hallway there was an room opening off the right side. When the East Wing was built in 1902, this was designed as a cloakroom for guests attending social events, but in 1942, it was converted to a movie theater so that President Roosevelt could watch wartime movie reels.
	The current decor dates back to 2004, and the front row has club chairs with ottomans for the First Family.
	This collage showed presidents meeting with the common people including Elvis, Hank Aaron, and Albert Einstein.
	The theme to these photos seems to be the president being Presidential, signing bills, meeting with foreign leaders, and addressing the nation.
	This last set of photos showed more casual photos, including President Nixon bowling, President Kennedy with his kids in the Oval Office, and President Johnson's daughter Lynda's wedding in the East Room in 1967.
	This is the East Garden Room, marking the end of the East Colonnade, where there was a small gift shop kiosk ...
	... along with portraits of First Lady Hillary Clinton, ...
	... and First Lady Laura Bush.
	This statue of President Washington looks down the hallway to the bust of Lincoln at the other end.
	This collage contained photos of First Ladies including Laura Bush with Prince Phillip, Lady Bird Johnson with the wives of newly appointed American ambassadors, and Melania Trump at the annual Easter Egg Roll.
	This collage had some photos of multiple presidents including President Johnson and President-elect Nixon following the 1968 election, and former Presidents Ford, Bush, and Carter with President Clinton in 1993.
	Here's a look back at the East Garden Room, with a large portait of First Lady Lucy Hayes hanging on the wall leading to ...
	... the Center Hall.
	Just inside the hallway to the left ...
	was a portait of First Lady Michelle Obama.
	Across the hallway was a cabinet containing a selection of china from previous administrations.
	Here is Debbie's favorite, a plate from the Clinton Administration, ...
	... and Dean's favorite, which was part of the Reagan Administration.
	Opening off the right side of the hall was the library. Originally a laundry room when the White House was built, it became a gentleman's waiting room in 1902 and then was converted to a library in 1935. Most of the furnishings date from the early 1800s.
	Debbie stuck her camera into the room to get this photo of the right side of the room.
	Across the hall was the Vermeil Room, which was originally a billiard room, but now is used to display selections from the 1,575 piece collection of European and American gilded silver received by the White House in 1957.
	There's also a portrait of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy above the fireplace.
	Next to the Vermeil Room is the China Room, which contains tableware from multiple administrations dating back to 1917.
	The red dress in the portrait of First Lady Grace Coolidge hanging on the wall opposite the door was the inspiration for the red decor of the room, first introduced during the Kennedy Administration in 1963.
	The tour headed up a set of gorgeous marble stairs from the ground floor to the State Floor, ...
	... where the tour continued in the East Room. This is the largest room in the White House and is used for state dinners, receptions, concerts, bill-signing ceremonies, and award presentations. It has also held the wedding ceremonies of five presidential daughters, the most recent of which was Lynda Johnson's wedding in 1967.
	Audrey and Dean took advantage of a break in the flow of people to quickly dance halfway across the room, and can now honestly say that they have danced at the White House.
	Here's the view from the East Room down the Cross Hall toward the State Dining Room.
	The huge chandeliers in the room date back to a renovation in 1902 under President Theodore Roosevelt.
	This portrait of George Washington is the only object to have remained in the White House since it was first occupied in 1800.
	We were there!
	The next room was appropriately named the Green Room. President Jefferson used this room as a dining room, and it became a parlor during President Madison's time in the White House. By 1825, it was known as the Green Room and it has retained that name ever since.
	There were Secret Service personnel in the room to answer any questions that people might have about the room or its contents.
	A portrait of First Lady Edith Roosevelt hung over the fireplace at one end of the room.
	The windows in the room looked out toward the South Lawn, ...
	... and the iconic terrace at the back of the White House.
	The next room was the Blue Room. It was oval-shaped which was the height of architectural fashion in the late 1700s. There are three such rooms stacked on top of each other on the south side of the White House, giving it its distinctive look.
	It has been known as the Blue Room since President Martin Van Buren redecorated it with blue textiles in 1837. President Cleveland, the only president to have a White House wedding, was married in this room in 1886.
	The gilded chairs in the room and the gilded clock on the mantel date back to President Monroe in 1817.
	Tom gasped as he looked out of the windows, and got out his phone to take a picture of the view.
	The Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial were visible across the South Lawn. The view is distorted due to the wavy nature of the bulletproof glass installed in the window frames.
	The next stop on the tour was, you guessed it, the Red Room. It was first decorated with red fabric in 1845, and was used by President Hayes to take the oath of office in 1877.
	Check out the detail in the border where the wall fabric meets the lower wooden trim, ...
	... and a last look at the view over the South Lawn.
	Our next stop was the State Dining Room, which used to be President Jefferson's office and was were he and Meriwether Lewis planned the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1802. It has been the State Dining Room since 1809, and can seat as many as 140 people when round dining tables are used.
	Inside the roped off section of the room were several people on a specially arranged tour either escorted by their member of Congress or someone on the Congressional staff. We didn't recognize this congressman, so he might have been an aide.
	There was a portrait of Abraham Lincoln hanging over the fireplace. It had been painted in 1869 and submitted to a competition for portaits of the late president. When it didn't win the competition, it was purchased by Robert Todd Lincoln, the late president's oldest son, whose widow later bequeathed it to the White House in 1939.
	We walked down the Cross Hall toward the Entrance Hall, ...
	... where the official portraits of President Kennedy ...
	... and President Reagan are hung.
	As we got to the center of the room, we posed for a quick photo. The door behind us leads to the Blue Room and has the Seal of the President of the United States above it.
	In the floor, there was a circle of stars with the years 1817, 1792 - 1902, and 1952 embedded in the floor. Each of the years marks a significant date in the history of the White House. 1792 is the year that construction started on the White House. 1817 marks the completion of the rebuilding of the White House after it was burned during the War of 1812. 1902 commemorates President Theodore Roosevelt's modernization of the White House and established the West Wing as the new executive offices of the president and their staff. 1952 marks the completion of President Truman's renovation, which was an extensive structural rebuilding of the White House.
	There's a gorgeous chandelier hanging in the center of the room, ...
	... and this beautifuly decorated Steinway piano.
	A portait of President Obama hangs on the wall to the right of the stairs that lead to the residence.
	With a last look around, we headed out the front door, ...
	... to the driveway in front of the White House. This is where distinguished visitors arrive when they are driven to the White House.
	Here's the view looking back at the White House from the driveway, ...
	... and here's the view looking back from the eastern side.
	Yeah, Debbie and Tom were there, ...
	... as were Audrey and Dean.
	We took our time walking from the front door to the street exit, taking in the North Lawn with its fountain, ...
	... and the driveway that is officially named Pickle Street.
	There is a gigantic northern red oak tree on the inside of the driveway.
	We were amazed to see that the limbs of the giant tree were reinforced with steel cables. That made us wonder just how old the tree was that they went to such lengths to preserve it.
	Just over an hour after we went through the first checkpoint, we were back on the outside of the White House grounds.
	We took a moment to discuss some of the highlights of the tour, ...
	... and to walk around the pedestrian-only street in front of the White House.
	Debbie put her camera through the bars of the fence to get this beautiful shot.
	We took one more photo of each couple, starting with Audrey and Dean, ...
	... and finishing with Tom and Debbie, ...
	... before starting the walk back to our hotels from 1600 Pennsylvania Street.
	We walked along Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the Treasury Building, ...
	... with its statue of Albert Gallatin, the fourth Secretary of the Treasury.
	We walked north along 15th Street Northwest, ...
	... past the beautiful red stone and brick building that used to be the home of the National Savings and Trust Company.
	It is still a bank, but now it belongs to Truist Bank.
	Back in our hotel, we rested after this morning's tour and had freeze-dried pepper steak for lunch.
	Just before 1:00 PM, we headed back out, walking past this building with roughly one million lion heads on it.
	They were everywhere you looked, including at the top of the building under the lip of the roof.
	We walked through Lafayette Square, named after the Marquis de Lafayette who fought for the United States in the Revolutionary War. At each of the four corners of the park, there are statues to foreign heroes of the Revolutionary War. This one is of General Thaddeus Kosciuszko of Poland.
	There were many informational signs along the sidewalk on the outside of the square, detailing the construction of the White House, the statues in the square, and the historical use of Lafayette Square as a location for protesting government policy,
	The statue of President Andrew Jackson in the center dates from 1853 and was the first bronze statue cast in the United States.
	Speaking of using Lafayette Square as a backdrop for protests, there were several small demonstrations going on while we walked through.
	Ah, the White House. We will never look at you the same way ever again.
	At the southwest corner of Lafayette Square stands a statue of Comte de Rochambeau, another French nobleman who fought for the United States in the Revolutionary War.
	We crossed Pennsylvania Avenue, which has been closed to vehicle traffic since 1995, ...
	... between the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian, ...
	... and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
	We walked until we got to the Department of the Interior building at the corner of 18th Street NW and E Street NW. This huge building is two blocks long and one block wide, ...
	... and we walked around it until we got to the southern entrance on C Street NW. We met up with Audrey and Dean again, and went inside for our 1:30 PM appointment.
	Inside the building, we went through security, ...
	.. and then proceeded to the museum entrance on the first floor. Here we met Piper, is an intern with the Department of the Interior, who we had arranged to meet with so that we could visit one of the non-public areas of the building with a National Park Service representative.
	While we waited for our guide to arrive, we were thrilled to see an exhibit explaining the markers that we'd seen at many locations throughout the country.
	These benchmarks note the locations of triangulation stations used by survey crews to measure distances. This one indicates that the museum is 24 feet above sea level.
	A few minutes later, we were joined by Tracy, the curator of the museum, and Dave, a public affairs officer for the Department of the Interior.
	Dave led us to conference room 2023 on the second floor, ...
	... so that we could see the Mather plaque that they have here.
	This plaque is one of the hardest for Mather plaque hunters like us to get to, requiring that contact the Department of the Interior and arrange for someone to show it to you. We were fortunate that it was where we expected it to be. Dave and Tracy admitted that when Debbie contacted them, they had no idea what a Mather plaque was and if it was still in the building.
	Look how happy Debbie is!
	This plaque was originally outside the office of the Director of National Park Service until the building was renovated in 2014, and then it moved to this conference room which is used exclusively by the National Park Service. It is part of the original 1930s casting run, and is in amazingly good shape, which isn't surprising considering that it has never been outside of a building.
	Dave spent a few minutes talking to us about some of the additional parks that the National Park Service oversees, ...
	... and then told us a podcast that he started to promote the National Park Service called "My Park Story." Tom immediately subscribed to it so that we could listen to it on the long drive home from Denver.
	There was a collage on the wall containing a National Park Service patch that was flown aboard the International Space Station during Expedition 45 and presented to the NPS as part of their 100th anniversary celebration in 2016.
	Tracy walked us back to the museum so that we could join the 2:00 PM public tour, where Debbie surprised Dean with the EnChroma color correcting glasses that she had reserved for him to use during the tour. The museum had only started offering the glasses a few days ago, and Dean was going to be the first member of the public to try them during a tour.
	We were ecstatic to see Thomas Moran's original painting of The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone hanging in the museum. We had just seen a print of it earlier in the trip so it was amazing to see the real thing up close. Debbie was the first of several people to discover that there was a proximity alarm for the painting when she leaned her head in too far to see the brushstrokes. A black section of carpet on the floor conveniently marks the boundary of the alarm zone.
	On the opposite wall was Moran's The Chasm of the Colorado, painted from a location now known as Dutton Point on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The last time we had seen this very painting in 2018, it was hanging in the Smithsonian Art Museum with a much gaudier frame.
	Nearby, there was a tactile replica of painting so that people with visual impairments can feel the painting.
	Dean kept looking at the painting with his glasss, then he'd remove them and look for a while, and then put them back on and look again. He asked several times, "Is this really how you see it?"
	The museum curator asked Dean if she could take pictures of him wearing the EnChroma glasses for the museum, so she photographed Dean while he and Debbie discussed how beautiful the painting was.
	Right at 2:00 PM, Piper started the official Department of the Interior tour, available to members of the public each Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. She started by talking about Moran's paintings and their influence on the creation of the National Parks while standing next to a display case containing a replica of the law that created Yellowstone National Park in 1872.
	Here's a closer look at the contents of the case. In the center is a photo of Roosevelt ArchRoosevelt Arch at the northern entrance of Yellowstone National Park which we had seen for the first time back on day 5 of this trip, despite having visited Yellowstone three times before that.
	We headed up to the seventh floor to see the first mural on the tour. There were actually several murals, one on each wall of the big room, ...
	... on the wall of this alcove that used to be a home to a snack bar, ...
	... and also on the walls of the alcove on the other side of the room.
	Piper explained that Interior Secretary Ickes, who was responsible for all of the artwork that we were going to see, wanted this area to have murals by Native American artists, telling whatever story they wanted, in whatever way they wanted. He also wanted their artwork to be in a highly trafficked area, hence this area where there used to be a very popular snack bar.
	There were doors on either side of the large room that lead out to the rooftop where employees are still able to walk and enjoy the views.
	There are even picnic tables for them to sit and eat their lunch, with views of the White House to the northeast and of the Washington Monument to the southeast.
	Our next stop was on the sixth floor at the entrance to the offices belonging to the Bureau of Land Management.
	Secretary Ickes wanted the murals in this area to show scenes from the homesteading era. On one side of the hallway, the mural captured the chaos at the start of the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889, ...
	... and on the other side of the hall, the mural depicted a scene from a settled homestead.
	We crowded into an elevator again and went down to the fifth floor, ...
	... to see two murals outside of what used to be the Bureau of Mines, which no longer exists.
	On one side of the hallway, the artist depicted mine workers during the process of producing petroleum, ...
	... and on the other side, the artist depicted the consumption of petroleum.
	It was time to walk down the crazy long hallway that runs the length of the building, ...
	... to get to the murals at the other end of the hallway. These were outside the offices for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Secretary Ickes had a different agenda for these murals. He wanted scenes depicting Native Americans learning from white men.
	Piper explained that the artist did what he asked, but added hidden meaning to the scenes that he only explained years later. For instance, this scene is supposed to show a white man teaching a Native American how to grow corn, but the corn behind the white man is much smaller than the corn behind the Native American, showing that the Native Americans already knew how to grow corn and didn't need any help.
	At the end of the hallway was the Hall of Tribal Nations, ...
	... where more than one hundred flags of the various tribal nations are permanently on display.
	Back to the elevators, and down to the second floor, ...
	... to the hallway containing the offices of the Bureau of Reclamation. This mural showed a dam being built and depicted an integrated workforce even though this was painted during the era of segregation. Hidden references to communism were sprinkled in the mural as well, such as red handkerchieds on workers who were being protected, and a hammer and sickle subtly represented on the right panel.
	Staying on the same floor, we walked away from the big mural and came to a section of the hallway covered with Ansel Adams photos. This one shows Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico which we've driven past many times on our way on road trips to Arizona.
	Adams had been commissioned by Secretary Ickes in 1941 to take a series of photos that reflected the Department's mission of proper stewardship of our beautiful land. This one shows Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Arizona.
	As we walked through the gallery around these stairs, there were lots of alcoves, ...
	... all containing different paintings showing scenes relevant to the Department of the Interior. This one shows workers harvesting dates, ...
	... and a desert landscape, ...
	... and other scenes of people transforming the land.
	Piper took a moment to draw our attention to the distinctive floors that we'd been seeing, ...
	... and talked a little bit about how the building is one of the few government buildings that still allows filming inside of it. She mentioned several movies that shot scenes here and passed them off as other buildings, but that once you've seen the floors in this building, you can recognize them immediately as being in the Department of the Interior.
	We went down the stairs to the basement level, where Secretary Ickes commissioned a series of murals that depicted African Americans contributing to society in a non-agricultural setting. These were very vibrant and colorful, and Dean spent some time looking at these with his glasses on and off. They represented African Americans in the arts, ...
	... education, ...
	... religion, ...
	... and science.
	Around the corner was a mural depicting Marian Anderson's Easter concert at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939.
	Our last stop was in the cafeteria in the basement, which had murals on both ends of the room. These were painted by Native American artists who were given a free hand to paint anything they wished.
	Piper brought the group back to the museum and ended the public tour, but then invited the four of us to see one more set of murals that might be interesting for Dean to see with his color correcting glasses. We took the non-working escalator back to the second floor, and it was very weird to walk on escalator steps that don't move. We spotted this escalator (and the distinctive building floors) in the film "No Way Out" a few days after we got home.
	On the second floor, Piper showed us two very vibrant paintings. They are the newest of the murals in the building, commissioned in 2000 to mark the 150th anniversary of the Department of the Interior.
	Dean was fascinated by all of the colors in these murals, and described the color of the horse in the center of this painting as not just black, but the color of Superman's hair which was absolutely accurate.
	As we left the building, we passed the hallway marking the offices of the National Park Service.
	This embossed disk was on the floor of the lobby.
	Piper had explained at the start of the tour that this building was built in the 1930s and was rare in that it was completed on time and on budget.
	It is a beautiful building, and we were very glad that we had visited. We waited briefly for our Uber to take us to our next stop, ...
	... the Old Ebbitt Grill. This restaurant had been recommended to Audrey by her cousin Phil who used to work at the White House as part of the second Bush Administration.
	Outside the restaurant, there was a bronze disk embedded in the sidewalk marking this as part of the Extra Mile - Points of Light Volunteer Pathway. It is a mile long path in DC that honors the public service of famous Americans. This one honors Melvin Jones, who founded the Lions Club.
	Inside, we took in the patriotic decorations while we waited to be seated.
	We ordered cocktails, which seemed appropriate since the Old Ebbitt Grill is billed as the oldest saloon in Washington. Cheers!
	Tom ordered the BBQ ribs and Debbie ordered a Maryland crab cake. Both were delicious, as was the fresh bread that was brought out for the table.
	After the meal, we took advantage of the rest rooms that were downstairs before starting the walk back to the hotel.
	We passed a Wells Fargo branch on the walk where there was an old-time Wells Fargo wagon on display. Don't start singing.
	We took a quick detour to a CVS where Dean bought milk and bottled water,which we all carried back. Audrey demonstrated the universal sign for "she doesn't have anything" by showing her empty hands in this photo.
	Our next stop was in Audrey and Dean's room at the Sofitel where we celebrated Audrey's birthday a month early with cake and champagne.
	Cheers!
	Audrey and Dean know how to throw a party, and brought along tiaras, top hats, gloves, and monocles. Debbie reclined on the bed in her finery while everyone else got their gear on, ...
	... and then we all piled on the bed for a group photo.
	Next up was streaming "Claim to Fame" on their big TV. Audrey and Dean had gotten us hooked on this series, and we had saved the season two finale to watch when we were all together. We were all stunned that nobody recognized who Chris was related to, ...
	... and were amused by the things that Carly did. Soon enough, the episode was over and we said our goodbyes, ...
	... and walked back to our hotel. We were flying back to Denver in the morning, so we spent some time packing up before drifting off to sleep. Day 20 >