The White House

I didn't have time to take a tour of the White House while we were in Washington, but I definitely wasn't going to let the trip pass without at least walking past it, which I did on the morning of the last day.  It was quite close to our hotel, though it was a bit of a maze finding my way there (I assume this is intentional, to help thwart evildoers).  But I just headed in what I thought was roughly the right direction and eventually found myself on a thin path on the south side, about two metres wide, full of people.  As you can see there was a big iron fence which somewhat obstructed the view.

 The bars were wide enough to fit the camera through, though, to get some fence-free shots.  In some ways, then, the photos were better than actually being there.

It looked smaller than I expected, and far away.  Though there are other attached buildings hiding behind the trees on either side.

The tourists on the path were from all nations, and there was a cacophony of languages being spoken.  The one uniting thing, though, was that every so often out of the babbling brook of unfamiliar sounds I could hear the single word "Obama" spoken in a dozen different tongues.

Once I had my photos and had paused for a few minutes to admire the view, I moved on.  I had two more memorials to see and then three museums after that.  I'm sure I'll visit 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue again sometime for a closer look, assuming that it isn't shaken to the ground or blown away in the meantime.  Somehow I doubt it - if it survived being burned by the British in 1814 I'm sure it will survive anything.

Here's the updated map.