The West Wing

Last night we were lucky enough to get a private tour of the West Wing.  We visited the main White House last year but we both really keen to have a look around the West Wing too.  One of our friends works as a nanny for a senior White House aide and she agreed to show us around where she worked.

It was fantastic, I felt so lucky to have the opportunity to be there.  They had just put up the Christmas decorations too and the whole place smelt of Christmas trees, it was lovely.  My favourite room was the Cabinet Room.  It had gorgeous brown leather studded chairs around the table and it looked like there were name plates engraved on the back of each chair.  Victoria, our guide told us that in that room FDR's wife Eleanor had sat down with Vice President Truman to tell him that her husband had died and that meant he had just become the President.

We couldn't actually walk in to the Oval Office but got to stand at the doorway and look in.  The thing that really struck me was how bright the lighting was in the office, it was odd, I can't believe it's like that while he's working in there, maybe they just turn the lights up at night.

Although the Cabinet Room was my favourite room, the absolute best part of the tour was the Rose Garden.  The walkway around the edge of the garden connects the West Wing to the main White House residence.  It made me really feel like I was in the West Wing TV show!  It was where President Bartlett was sometimes caught having a sneaky cigarette outside the Oval Office.

The President has an official photographer with him every day so the walls of the West Wing are covered with his photos.  We were told that they update the photos every few weeks there is only one that has never changed.  It's a photo of Obama bending down and letting a little boy touch his head.  We're not sure of the significance of it and why they've kept it up but it's a lovely photo.  There is one other photo that Victoria told us has not been changed recently so she thinks it looks like it's there to stay and that's a series of images of Obama and his team in the Situation Room watching the raid on Bin Laden.

We weren't allowed to take any photos inside the West Wing just outside the entrances.

They are doing some construction out the front of this entrance which explains the big white barrier but in the background you can see a little bit of the main White House lit up.

To the side of the West Wing is the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.  The West Wing is actually really small so only a handful of White House staff actually work in the offices there, the majority work in the Eisenhower building.  I think it's one of the most beautiful buildings in DC and it looked even better as it was dressed up for Christmas.