pic: The President meets MOE

[Carol]

I'll get some more pictures up later today. Thanks to 768 and 116 for "hosting" the reception at the Cannon Office Bldg. (attached to the Capital where a lot of Congress have their offices) after the White House visit. And thanks to 768 for the special buttons they made for us! Unfortunately no congressperson showed up, although many sent staffers. I was told that they are rarely in DC on Mondays. And thanks to Dave Lavery for posting the pics so quickly!

Now, the White House. It was very exciting. If you picture the standard view of the WH with the portico and pillars in front, we were in the room just inside the balcony on the second floor. MOE was set up for a demo there, with FLL set up in the East Room (with the famous portrait of George Washington) and FVC in the room on the West side, but I'm not sure what that is called. We had a lot of time to wander the whole area including the Green room and Red room and to look at all the art work. Portraits of most of the presidents are there, including the well known portrait of JFK (with his arms crossed an looking down) and the bust of Lincoln.

They did put down carpeting over the marble floor for the robot, and yes, we did almost hit the very expensive crystal chandelier. First Bush talked to Dean, Woodie, Dave L, Paul Abele, and some other FIRST people. Then he came out where we had been standing for at least 20 minutes, posed on the stair case (with a guard behind us to keep anyone from wandering upstairs). He greeted us, said he had a nice talk with Dean about his latest invention, the water purifier, and mentioned how he fell off a Segway. They they posed with us and Dean said we had a cheer for him (which startled him quite a bit!). Our Chairman's team gave a very short presentation in which he listened graciously, but only showed interest when they mentioned our literacy program. Our drive team then demo'ed the robot, after which Bush took over the controls. While our driver drove the robot Bush controlled the gripper and picked up a ring and hung it. he then left to see the FLL team.

There was a horde of photographers but unfortunately we weren't allowed to take video. Security as you can imagine was extremely tight. The only items allowed in were car keys, wallet, and cameras. No purses, lipsticks, combs, or anything pointed such as pencils. And if can look closely you can see we are all wearing our medals which of course set off the metal detectors.

It was an exciting day but tiring day - we didn't get back until around 11. I'm back at work but as you can see haven't done much yet, so I'll end it here.