When Did the White House Tour Become Awful

Wheat and Weeds has a interesting post here at Tourist's Guide To Washington . He makes this note on the White House Tour:

When did the White House tour get so awful? It's no longer even a tour. You pass through several layers of security, they hand you a brochure, a sign you might very well miss announces the tour's self-guided, and you walk through in all of five minutes. Docents in each room will answer questions if you have them, but they don't look as if they really want you to. (You official Washingtonians: if you've been on the White House Christmas tour during the Bush years, it's exactly like that, except no festive mood and no special booklet to explain what you're seeing.) The official tour used to be more welcoming, longer, and was directed so you could know what paintings you were looking at or which interesting events took place in those rooms. Now the feel is: "Oh, just great. Citizens again. Fine. Here are some rooms: green, red, yellow, blue. Off you go now, pip-pip."

How sad. I did the White House tour before the 9/11 days and it was much better than the above. It also sounds like a bad politics too. I wonder if Bush and Obama were and are aware of this.

D.C. is a great place to take a vacation!! No admission prices!!! I had shock when after I went to D.C. and went to Williams burg and just the cost to tour stuff. YIKES.

My favorite place to go is at the foot of Robert E Lee's old House at Arlington Cemetery. The view is just breathtaking and makes you very proud to be an American.