DC TRIP: The White House Visitor Center

When I wrote my Senator requesting a White House tour, I was told , "Even with the best preparation, White House tours are extremely rare. Approximately 80,000 visitors apply for 3,000 tour slots per day." That seems a bit of an exaggreration to me. Anyway, we failed to score one, and had to settle for a look inside the White House Visitor Center, a couple of blocks away. 

The coolest thing about it is this table, where you can get a virtual tour of many of the rooms (more than you see on the real tour, I believe). You can pan around 360 degrees to see the whole room, and even up and down to see the ceiling and floor. And for each room, there are several old photos showing you what it looked like at various times in the past. 

There's also a small museum, with a few things I found of interest.

Hiawatha himself

This gilded copper eagle, says the card, may be the original that perched on the White House flagpole from 1899 to 1993, when it was replaced by duplicate.

 This busty brass and iron andiron flanked the Blue Room fireplace at least far back as 1902.

 An exhibit showing what several Presidents ate spilled these interesting beans.
I'm sure Davy would approve.