A West Wing adventure at the White House

Our trip to DC had so many cool moments but one of the most memorable was a chance to spend time in the West Wing of the White House. My good friend Sara not only travels to our home in Missouri to help me clean the house, she also introduced us to one of the West Wing staffers she knows to help us get a chance to visit the White House. How cool is that?

After a couple of months of back and forth conversing, we were able to schedule a chance to visit the West Wing – it’s a part of the White House that is available for pubic visitors only if you can have a staff member give you a tour. So Sara, my brother and our family had a chance to visit.

It took a few layers of security to get to the entrance of the West Wing. We took photos outside the staff entrance because we were not allowed to take photos inside or in the Rose Garden.

Once we got in, we got to see a lot of the area from the door to the situation room to the Rose Garden, Cabinet Room, Oval Office and more. For our news-nerdy family, it was especially awesome to have the chance to check out the press room. We took pictures outside and in the press room. We all got to learn a lot about the history of the West Wing. I also enjoyed many of the photos hanging in the hallways – many are updated regularly by White House photographer, Pete Souza. He often changes out the photos in the hallway weekly. I really admire his work and it was very cool to see which ones are his favorites.

My favorite moment was when we were checking out the Rose Garden. Jordan learned about how many powerful and famous people have walked down the walkway for public and private meetings with the president. So she walked tiny steps across the width of the walkway so Jordan could say she stepped everywhere famous people walked.

I’m so honored we had this opportunity. Very few people can say they’ve had a West Wing experience and I know we’ll all be able to talk about it for a long time. Hopefully the kids know what a very special opportunity it was.

Jordan got to sit in the seat where Helen Thomas once sat and asked the first question to many presidents.

Thanks so much to Sara Langhinrichs for helping our family get a chance to visit the White House West Wing!