We took a trip to Washington, DC, and my 5 year old son, Alex, was dying to see the White House. He hoped to actually see the president on our visit. I couldn’t deny him the opportunity to see the president and was interested in what the White House looked like.

We parked at an outlying train station and took the train in to the hub that was closest to the White House. It was 9 am and already a big line had formed. Even though the line was long, they manage to keep things going so we didn’t have to wait long to get inside. Getting the tickets were actually the hardest part. We had to request tickets through our state congressman at least 21 days before the trip. It was a good thing I was on the ball and got us a pair of tickets long before we actually got to Washington, DC.

I couldn’t get over the fact that the White House was so big. Of course, we couldn’t see all of it but we had access to several rooms and the secret service agents milling about were able to give us a lot of information as to what was all available at the White House and the history behind the various rooms. Alex was disappointed to learn that the president wasn’t in that day but soon got into the architecture and furnishings as much as I did.

There are pictures of past presidents and important dignitaries everywhere. I loved the picture of Hillary Rodham Clinton painted back when Clinton was president. The White House is so iconic and so full of great history that we could see something cool at every stop along our tour. The furniture was a bit eclectic, probably because they had changed things around throughout the different presidential years.

There were eight rooms available for us to see. My favorite was the China Room which, as I was told, was set up by Edith Wilson, the wife of President Woodrow Wilson. It was chock full of china and other knickknacks that took me back to the days in the early 1900s, when the room was designed. Alex was especially interested in the secret servicemen. He found them to be incredibly funny in a serious sort of way.

As a US citizen, I feel everyone should take a tour of this fascinating piece  of property. It’s one of those places that you won’t forget having seen and,  if the timing is right, you might run into someone famous in politics.