From Blue Sky Days to Blackbird Fields: Thank you, Tammy Baldwin...

One way to get a ticket to tour the White House is to contact your representative. So Thom contacted Mark Pocan and Tammy Baldwin and about a week ago we got our ticket for today. Our tour time was 9:30 am, so we left at 8 am to catch our bus and the subway to Federal Triangle. From there it was a short walk to the White House. We even had time to stop at the White House visitor's center for a quick warm up and a restroom break.

The Treasury Building (next to White House)

Tours are self-guided, but you get a lovely tour booklet as you enter into the Whitehouse. There was a line when we arrived, but it moved pretty quickly. There was a check in station where they checked your ID and another where you went through a scanner. You weren't allowed to carry any type of bag or purse in, so it doesn't take as long to scan wallets, cell phones, and people.

This year's theme is "Magic, Wonder, & Joy". Before entering the East Wing door, we are greeted with an amazing Christmas tree that looked as though it was growing through the roof of the porch. As you walked up the steps, it appeared to be floating overhead and then you were walking under its branches to enter the East Lobby. The East Lobby and East Colonnade were decorated with large holiday candies.

Entry to the East Wing

The East Lobby with the White House Tree in the back entry

The East Colonnade with candy hanging

Tribute Commander and Willow

Painting of White House with Wreaths

The first Christmas tree that you saw as you entered the White House had golden stars engraved with fallen service members. The Ground Floor Corridor had red mailboxes for letters to Santa. After that we viewed various rooms starting with the Library which was decorated to honor the tradition of bedtime stories. The Vermeil Room was represented the joy of music and performance during the holiday. The China Room represented the many flavors of the holidays with holiday cakes, cookies, and gingerbread.

Archway decorations in the Ground Floor Corridor

Red mailbox -- Letters to Santa

The Library -- Bedtime Stories

Vermeil Room -- Joy of Performance

The East Room, the largest room in the White House, celebrated the joyful anticipation of the holidays with advent calendars decorating the walls and Christmas trees. The Green Room's glowing candles and stained glass symbolized the peace, strength and joy found in faith. The Blue Room featured the official White House Christmas Tree. It was 18 1/2 foot Fraser Fir from North Carolina. The Blue Rooms chandelier must be removed in order to make room for the tree. This tree was the kids favorite as working model train was running loops around the base of the tree. The tree was decorated with scenes, landscapes, and neighborhoods throughout the country. The names of each state and the District of Columbia were featured on gift tags. I had help to find Wisconsin as it was partially hidden by a tree branch. The Red Room represented the joy of making holiday crafts and pageant costumes.

East Room - Decorations on the tree represent advent calendar

The 18th Neapolitan crèche with 40+ figurines, been on display since 1967

View from the window of lawn and fountain

Cut out star curtains

Blue Room White house tree

Blue Room Tree -- scenes adorn the tree

The train going around the base

Tags with red bows for each state

Wisconsin tag -- the one hidden by the scenery

The Red Room - mantel decoration

The State Dining Room embodied the theme of Santa's Workshop with workbenches, stools and ladders circling the trees and tools as ornaments. Life-sized nutcrackers and dancing ballerinas filled the window wells. The Cross Hall connects the State Rooms to the East Room and the State Dinning Room. This room featured the official White House Menorah. The Grand Foyer and this years Gingerbread Whitehouse was a recreation of The Night Before Christmas which was published 200 years ago in 1823. The most eye catching part of the room was the large Santa, sleigh, and reindeers suspended from ceiling as if they flew off the pages of the book and over the gingerbread village and snow covered pine trees placed throughout the room.

State Room

The Reindeer above the white trimmed tree

The Gingerbread Whitehouse

Stockings hung by the chimney with care

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Ballerina on Plum Pudding

Gingerbread house to left and snowy trees

Harpsicord and Obama

Tree by the exit

The Grand Staircase is through the entrance

Exit out of the White House

The view of the White House from 1600 Pennsylvania

The White House display used about 15,000 feet of ribbons, over 350 candles, nearly 34,000 ornaments, and around 22,000 bells. There are 98 Christmas trees through the White House complex and the Gingerbread Whitehouse included 40 sheets of sugar cookie dough, 40 sheets of gingerbread, 90 pounds of pastillage, 30 pounds of chocolate, and 50 pounds of royal icing. There are over 140,000 lights decorating the trees, garlands, wreaths, and displays in the White House. The north and south facades featured 72 classic wreaths and it takes over 300 volunteers working a full week to decorate the inside and outside of the White House. (All facts are from my tour booklet).

We then walked south of the White House to see the White House National Christmas Tree, the state trees, and the National Menorah. The White House National Tree is different from the Capitol Christmas Tree. The Capitol Tree has always been a cut tree, while the White House Tree was a live tree that was planted. The live tree in the ellipse was cut down in November due to a fungal disease. It seems they used a cut tree this year, as they have not decided whether to plant a new tree or to continue use cut trees. The area is maintained by the National Park Services and they will decide after the holidays. The tree was a 40 foot Norway spruce was the tree that was blown over days before the lighting ceremony in November.

As we walked to see the trees we saw this metal seal in the sidewalk. It was part of The Extra Mile Points of Light -- Volunteer Pathway. This is a mile long walkway near the White House honoring the actions and service of famous Americans. We found Paul Harris, the founder of Rotary.

For our Rotary friends. Paul Harris recognized on The Extra Mile

Along with the large tree, there are small trees on display for each state with ornaments made by school children from that state. We also walked by the National Menorah, which was also in the ellipse.

The White House National Tree

Menorah and the White House

We also did a memorial walk. We hope to catch the memorials and monuments we did not see last time we were in DC. We walked around the Washington Monument, but we did not go in it. We did that the last time we were in DC. We walked around the tidal pool to see the Jefferson Memorial. There is work being done on the memorial and we walked all a way around it find the way up to Jefferson's statue.

Washington Monument

The front of the Jefferson Memorial overlooks the tidal pool

The backside of Jefferson Memorial

Jefferson Memorial

Jefferson's Statue

Our next monument was FDR's and it was really very interesting and I think my favorite monument. It was basically in 4 sections -- one for each term of office. There is also a tribute Eleanor It was very spread out and the stone used in it was an earthy brown. Each section had water falling, with quotes, and statues playing tribute what happened during that particular term. It provided a little bit of history of the man along with being a monument to him.

Photos from FDR's Memorial

Radio chats

Soup lines

Horse patrol

Tribute to Eleanor

Next, we walked through Martin Luther King's Memorial , which emphasized his many famous quotes. A tour guide that I heard as I walked by, said that MLK's monument is more beautiful at night when his statue is light up. I think we are too busy to see it at night.

MLK Memorial Statue

Lastly, we walked through the Korean War Memorial and Vietnam War. The memorials are designed to emphasized the Americans that lost their lives and the walls with names are many in both memorials. We were getting cold after walking and we decided to find the nearest metro back. We ended up walking to Foggy Bottom, which goes through George Washington University. This is the same metro we used to go to the Kennedy Center.

Korean War Memorial

Another view (KWM)

Wall with images from Korean War

Vietnam War Memorial (Names on the black wall in the background)

Tuesday, we had an interesting trek to the Peace Corps Building in the NoMa (north of Massachusetts Avenue) area of DC. We were able to meet Becky Williams, country desk officer for Kosovo (and all the Balkan countries receiving Peace Corps volunteers). We had a nice talk with her. We found out that we will be a small group, with only 13 at this point. We should start receiving correspondence from her in early January to get ready to depart. She will be at our staging, when we prepare to go and our staging will be in DC. On our walk to the Peace Corps building, we walked past the Thomas Jefferson Building (Library of Congress), the Capitol, the Supreme Court Building,, Russel Senate Building and Union Station.

Thomas Jefferson Building

The fountain in front of the Jefferson Building

Capitol Building

Supreme Court Building

The Russell Senate Building

Union Station

Peace Corps Building

After meeting with Becky, we walked to a different metro, through a different part of DC. We saw the Carnegie Library Building and a area with a beautifully decorated Christmas Tree. Buildings in this area were a mixture of old buildings like the Carnegie Library and newer office buildings. It was an interesting area.