Kicking Off Your Visit - Where to Start

Whenever I visit a city, I always like to know where to start. A good place to get information, ideally talk to knowledgeable locals, centrally located, and part of the fabric of the city I'm visiting. Without someone to show you the ropes, it's hard to know where to start. Recently, I fielded a question from a reader on that topic that might serve to help others. Afshan would like to know that if "there is a place from where he can get the map of all the attractions. Is there a place like "Welcome Center" that offers maps and guides?"

As in so many things in DC, this is a somewhat complicated question. The DC Chamber of Commerce used to operate at Visitor Information Center at the Reagan Building, but it's now closed. To be frank, I didn't think this was the greatest location and don't miss it to much, but it still confuses visitors as signs for it still exist and its website remains up. Additionally, the Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) operates a Washington Welcome Center on the corner of 10th and E NW across from Ford's Theater, which isn't bad, but I just don't find it terribly useful either. It's a great place to go if you're looking for a FBI t-shirt or a kitchy souvenir, but the place is normally overrun with 8th graders and the staff is too harried to answer questions.

So where do I think you should start your visit? Here are a few options:

1. Old Post Office: I've mentioned this before and it's where I try to start tours with out of town guests. The Old Post Office's tower is one of the best views of Washington, DC at a fraction of the hassle of the Washington Monument. While there's no place inside I'd recommend, I'd say start off at the Barnes and Nobles a few blocks north on 12th and E NW, swing by the local section on the first floor, and pick up a guidebook and map. Armed with this new info, head over to the OPO on 12th and Penn, take them up the tower, and spend as long as you like scouting out the city from the high ground. Often, there will be a National Park Service ranger up there to answer questions, and if it's not busy, he's probably grateful for the company.

2. White House Visitors Center: While this is a must see if you are that tiny proportion of DC visitors who actually expect to get in the White House, the Visitor's Center is worth going into even if you didn't get lucky with WH tickets. The reason: one of the best help desks in all of Washington. Off the 8th grade circuit (more or less), the staff at the Visitor's Center is full of information and often without people to share it. They can give you the Park Service's Washington, DC map, which is every bit as good as the the commercial available ones, and the Visitor's Center can give you the single most document in Washington, DC: a comprehensive list of the openings and closings of the majority of DC attractions (pdf). Print it up now, bookmark it, or just swing by the Visitor's Center to get a fresh copy.

3. Union Station: Built to serve as a ceremonial gateway to the nation's capital, with a stunning vista of the Capitol Building, you end up looking at the ass end of Christopher Columbus as you exit Union Station. Which is a bit apropos. Union Station should be a one stop shop for people coming to see Washington, DC. It's accessible to intercity travelers via Amtrak and Bolt Bus, to regional visitors via Virginia and Maryland commuter lines (VRE and MARC), to local transit users via Metro Rail and Bus and the Circulator, to drivers with an on-site parking garage, to pedestrians, and even to bicyclists with a shiny new bike station. And it features access to various tour buses to take an intro tour of the city (more on that to come). But if you're looking to talk to people to pick up advice, be prepared: everyone at Union Station is either too busy catching their train, trying to sell you something, or simply tourists more befuddled than you (they didn't even know enough to check out this blog). So if your entry to DC is Union Station, great! Stroll through the building, swing by the Barnes and Nobles to get a guidebook, and go check out the rest of DC. Union Station is adequate as a visitors center, and has huge potential. But it's not there yet.

So, to recap, these are the top three best places to start your DC visit, in my humble opinion, and in roughly that order. If you've got places you like to send visitors as they arrive, throw them in the comments.

White House Spring Garden and Grounds Tour

photo uploaded to flickr by alykat

Ok, so you didn't come up lucky on the Easter Egg Roll tickets. And White House tours just aren't happening for you, like they don't for the overwhelming number of Americans. And unlike some people, you just weren't cool enough to get invited for a Christmas tour.

Fortunately for you, there is another way. In perhaps the White House's most egalitarian gesture, every spring since some time I can't be bothered to look up (sorry, it's tour season and I'm already shot), the White House opens the South Lawn to all (well, most) comers for its Spring Garden and Grounds Tour.

It's perhaps one of my personal favorite experiences in a building I often dread taking people to. You get to wander up the path, and get pretty close to the building itself. The gardens are starting to come into bloom and it's just about the only White House experience that allows you a view of the famed Rose Garden, or for that matter, the outside of the Oval Office. You also get a chance to see how the Obamas have put their stamp on the White House, with views of their kid's swing set and Mrs. Obama's new kitchen garden. The Children's Garden is also on view, but be prepared for an additional wait for that one.

The tour this year will be Saturday, April 17th from 10 to 4 and Sunday, April 18th from 10 to 3. Tickets are required and they are handed out the morning of starting at 8 am from the Ellipse Visitors Pavillion (off 15th, just south of E ST NW on the Ellipse). In my expereince, tickets will still be available throughout much of the day, but if this is important to you, make sure you make it early. I have in the past had groups of fifty people walk up at 11 and get tickets for noon, but past performance is no guarantee of future behavior and all that.

As always, try not to be an idiot and bring prohibited items along, but for this event (and just about only for this event) the White House will allow strollers and cameras.


2010 Easter Egg Roll Dates Announced

While those of us in the DC area are still trying to figure out which Norse gods we've angered, and why they continue to assault us with wave after wave of snowstorms, it would be appropriate to take a look ahead at the upcoming spring.

Most immediate is the annual White House Easter Egg Roll. An Easter tradition since Dolly Madison's time, the Egg Roll was moved by to the White House Lawn by Lemonade Lucy Rutherford in 1878. A fun fact: Lucy Rutherford was such a strict temperance advocate that she refused to serve alcohol at White House functions. Well except for when the Russian Grand Duke came. Which is a bummer, because serving a Russian Grand Duke Lemonade could have been one of history's great clashes.

Anyway, back to the present day, the White House has announced that this year's event will be Monday, April 5th. In addition to the traditional egg roll and goofy costumes, events will be focused on Michelle Obama's initiative Let's Move, a program to fight child obesity. So don't plan on lots of chocolate and peeps being handed out.

Now, as we discussed last year, the Obama White House is trying something new with distribution of tickets. No longer will folks be waiting up all night in person trying to snag one of the first-come, first-served tickets. Last year, the White House moved to an online distribution scheme, which was not an unmitigated success. But, learning from their mistakes, this year tickets will be handed out slightly differently. Rather than create a massive on-line traffic jam, folks can register from Thursday, February 24th to Sunday, February 28th. No rush, just make sure you sign up at some point in that time frame at Recreation.gov. Then, on March 1st, a lottery will be held, with results being announced March 4th.

All very simple, and we're happy to see that the White House isn't afraid to ditch last years system for a better one. This new system looks to be fairer and less stressful all around.

A Tour of the White House - First Floor

East RoomWhen I left you the other day, we had entered the Residence and were ascending the staircase to the First Floor, which is where most of the rooms you'll recognize are. We go up, take a right, and start in the largest room in the White House, the East Room. This is where Abigail Adams famously hung her laundry (and may still be there). It's where President Lincoln and President Kennedy laid in state after their assassinations, and you may recognize it as the site of Presidential press conferences, a tradition instituted in this room by President Reagan. Originally called the Public Audience Room, it was felt that this was too imperial a title for a young Republic, and the moniker East Room stuck. Perhaps best known of all the artifacts in the White House, the Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington that was saved by Dolly Madison hangs here, along with a more recent portrait of his wife. And, just to help debunk persistent and stupid urban legends, yes, the White House nativity was prominently on display.

From here, we passed in quick succession through the creatively-named Green, Blue, and Red Rooms. Green RoomThe Green Room, first referred to as such by President John Quincy Adams, was probably originally named for the green felt-covered game tables, and not the green silk wallpaper, which came much later. President Madison declared war on the British in this room, and President Lincoln's son Willie was laid out here following his death at 11 from typhoid fever. The Blue Room is the site for the "official" White House Christmas Tree (not to be confused with either the National Christmas Tree or the Capitol Christmas Tree). As is traditional, the tree reflects a theme chosen by the First Lady, in this case "Reflect, Rejoice, and Renew". Utilizing ornaments from previous Christmas's, the White House asked various community organizations to decorate them and pay tribute to a local monument. I'm afraid I couldn't get a comprehensive look before I moved on, but feel free to check out my flickr site if you want to see what I did get pics of. The last of the colored-themed rooms, the Red Room, was originally used as a breakfast room but is now a reception room.

State Dining RoomNext we move to the west end of the original building and the State Dining Room. Unlike the East Room, it doesn't quite take up the entire depth of the White House, leaving room for the Family Dining Room (not on our tour). The State Dining Room can seat up to 140 guests at a formal function, and has been expanded since the original construction with a removal of a staircase. A portrait of Abraham Lincoln by GeorgeHealy, painted shortly after his death in 1869, dominates the room, but a gingerbread White House added some holiday cheer.

We end up in, finally, in the Cross Hall and Entrance Hall. A slight traffic jam developed just outside the State Dining Room, as all of those damned tourists had to stop and get a picture of the iconic portrait of JFK that hangs just to the right as you enter the Cross Hall (mine is here). Painted by Aarom Shikler, it's pensive stance is designed to reflect the untimely end of President Kennedy's tenure as much as his personality. The Cross Hall is the long, red-carpeted, walk you see the President take on his way to the East Room for his press conferences. Like most guests we exit, ironically enough, through the Entrance Hall, stepping over a plaque commemorating four key years in the White House; the original construction in 1792, the post-fire building in 1817, Teddy Roosevelt's expansion in 1902 and  the Truman rebuilding in 1952.

As we exit towards Pennsylvania Avenue, I hope this little tour helped provide some background of what's behind the facade for the majority of folks who can't get in. And for those who do, I hope it gives you a little heads up on what you'll be seeing.

A Tour of the White House - East Wing and Ground Floor

Yesterday, we had worked our way through White House security (legitimately!) and were just on the cusp of entering the East Wing. The East Wing, of course, was not part of the original plan of the White House, and was added during the expansion of the White House during President Theodore Roosevelt's administration. At the time, it was a simple social entrance, built to accommodate the many guests that would arrive for formal events (you know, with hats, gloves, coats, etc.). In fact, the clock room from that time has been converted into the White House movie theater. During World War II, the East Wing was renovated and expanded, largely to mask construction of FDR's bomb shelter. Over time, the East Wing would become synonymous with the Office of the First Lady, a position that was formalized as an official branch in 1977 by Rosalynn Carter.

As we entered the East Wing, we were greeted by a wishing tree in the Garden Room. More elegant than a Festivus Pole, it did lack the emotional impact for me. After rolling up our respective wishes on colored paper, we placed them on the tree. Moving on, we left the East Wing proper via the East Colonnade. Had we been allowed to go in, the Family Theater was through the doors to our right. To our left was a great view of the Jackie Kennedy Garden, and what would have been a great view of the National Menorah if a Secret Service van had gotten out of the shot.
East Colonnade
We came in to the central, original portion of the White House through the Visitors Foyer. Generally referred to the Residence, the Executive Mansion has been rebuilt several times, most extensively under President Truman from 1948 to 1952 (if you don't count the restoration following the British burning it). While most of the furnishings, interior decorations, and other features are largely original, they were entirely removed in the late forties, the building was entirely gutted, and rebuilt using reinforced concrete and steel beams. So while you might not notice it walking through, the 19th Century period rooms you see were meticulously rebuilt just over fifty years ago.

We enter on the ground floor. As was traditional at the time, and continuing through much of last century, the ground floor was used for storage, servant spaces, and other non-public uses. It's since been adapted for more formal uses. We were allowed to peak into the Vermeil Room, the China Room and the Library. The ever-effective velvet rope kept us from leaving the Center Hall, and we were only allowed to see the few rooms on the east side of the building. Had we been allowed to explore further on, we would have seen the Diplomatic Reception Room, Map Room, Palm Room, kitchen space, doctors office, and, of course, the Situation Room (which contrary to popular belief is not in an underground bunker).

I'll leave you here, but the stairs lead upstairs from here and I'll let you know what we see up there shortly.