Friday, March 6, 2009

I'm Underwhelmed

We just got back from a White House tour. I call it "tour", because they call it "tour." Then you read the fine print, and figure out it's a "self-guided tour." So in reality, you walk in, look at a bunch of pictures that you can find online, see some paintings and a few rooms (like the Green, Blue, and Red Rooms), and then walk out the door onto the driveway. Our appointment was at 2, and we were done by 2:10. And we dawdled. A lot.

Not terribly impressive.

On the way out, Ellie asked "Why are we going outside?" Sharon said, "Because we saw all there was to see." Ellie said, "Yeah, except Barack Obama."

We followed up by going to the visitor's center, where we managed to buy about $30 bucks worth of crap. Which was way less than we would have purchased, had they had anything else for us to buy. What the H is wrong with this city? We didn't even pass any street vendors selling trinkets other than shirts. How can you tour the White House and have to search for things to purchase afterward?

2 comments:

Red Cup Mom said...

Are you f. serious? It was 10 minutes long? I bet those rooms are just all smoke and mirrors. A complete mirage.

Eryn said...

ha, a friend of ours got ESCORTED OUT on her "tour" because she was underwhelmed, and they decided to mock, I mean, make up of this by taking photos of themselves with EVERYTHING.

"Here I was, with the vase in the hallway...Here I am, with the Secret Service man, saying 'I hope you enjoyed your tour, for the 10th time'...here I am on the porch with the 4 Secret Service men, saying 'We hope you enjoyed your tour' for the 300th time...."

Almost getting arrested makes for a good story though