Ryan the Temp said:
FYI - THIS is the tour you want to go on:
https://whitehouse.gov1.info/visit/white-house-garden-tour.html
This tour allows you to walk right up to Oval Office and look in the windows, then walk along the colonnade into the Residence.
I went on the Fall tour back in 1991 during the Bush Sr. administration and it was fantastic. Got to go around the grounds in front of the White House and see all the trees planted by the different presidents going back to John Quincy Adams. Got to see the playground and gardens, then into the bottom floor of the White House and see pretty much everything on the 1st floor. I took a morning tour and liked it so much that I signed up again and went a second time in the afternoon.
On the afternoon tour, we were completing our outdoor loop and were getting close to the White House when secret service came out and stopped the line and put the landing targets out on the lawn. A few minutes later Marine One and another helicopter landed on the lawn and Bush got out and headed inside. There were a group of celbrities standing outside to greet him. I remember seeing Jim Brown and Carly Simon in the group. Anyway, after they all went in and up to the residence, or West Wing, we were allowed to continue the tour and go inside and finish the tour. I remember the blue room, the East Room where they have the parties for the heads of state, and the famous portraits of past presidents, the beatiful stairway to the residence. It was a fantastic experience from a different era. I wish it could still be that informal and open to the public. The history is so thick there that it's hard to take it all in.