Ok, here is the promised “White House Adventure” story.
Ray, Tom, and I decided to walk past the White House on Friday evening. Upon arriving on the south side (which is actually the back of the White House), we saw that the road was blocked off. Getting closer, it became clear that we were not going to be allowed to walk past the White House. We hung around, wondering how long the sidewalk was going to be closed.
Finally, we decided to talk to a Capitol police officer who was obviously there to make sure nobody tried getting to where they weren't allowed. He was very nice and told us that a helicopter was going to be landing on the White House lawn and that was why the area was blocked off. He wasn't sure how long it was going to be, but didn't think it would be long.
We chatted with the police officer for awhile longer and decided to hang around and hopefully see the helicopter landing. There were a lot of people around, and some seemed to not notice that the area was blocked off (one spot in the road was left without barriers for vehicles leaving the secured area). Every couple of minutes, someone would try walking down that road instead of staying on the sidewalk, where they would have seen that it was blocked. They wouldn't get very far before a secret service officer would loudly blow his whistle and tell the person to get back.
After seeing this happen a couple of times, the three of us started trying to predict which people walking by would try to make it past the tough SS guy. We also tried to figure out how far down the road they would make it before the SS guy blew his whistle at them. We got quite a few laughs out of it and even had some Danes nearby laughing with us. Then, the Capitol police officer caught on to what we were doing, and he was laughing, too! Fun times!
A few people tried getting through the SS guy with White House passes, but he just yelled out, “I don't know what that means” or “That means nothing to me.” This guy was tough! Finally, some other secret service officers walked down the road. First, they showed their White House passes. No go. Then, they showed some other type of pass (we couldn't see what). The SS guy replied, “THAT I understand.” They got through :)
We never did get to walk past the White House that night. We got some awesome pictures on Sunday, though!
5 comments:
So how many of the times someone tried to get through was it actually Tom trying to get through again? Do you know who was in the helicopter?
We did discuss making a run for it figuring that the SS guy couldn't get all of us. Then again, he's SS for a reason. He probably could get all of us!
We don't know who was in the helicopter. We figured it was shuttling important people in from the airport.
It was me in the chopper. I thought I would drop in to say hi to the Pres and First Lady. Sorry I didn't see you and the boys, I would have let you in! : )
LP
:)
Great work.
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