Planning a trip for the summer (going during recess). Going wife and 2 kids. read through the thread Was wondering about 2 things.
1. I have a bunch of Hilton points. Considering i am traveling with kids, is staying at the Embassy Suites near Georgetown (in the west end) the way to go?
2. i used my senator's (Bob Menendez) website to request a Whitehouse tour but haven't heard back from them yet. anyone have experience with the process?
TIA
Lots of experience with #2. Tried for years and years and they never succeeded in getting the tour for me. First of all, their standard procedure is to have you submit to them your SSNs names and DOBs through unsecured means, which I didn't agree to do. We worked out a different method to transfer that information. But then they kept missing the response deadlines from the secret service for background checking and scheduling requests and we were never approved. Later I moved out of NJ and tried again with the new state- immediate responses from the senator's office, secure transfer of ID, and was approved within 2 weeks of requesting.
Bottom line, NJ didn't try too hard. Maybe if you agree to send a PDF with your personal information over unsecured email they'll do a better job but I doubt that was the reason. Like anything else relating to NJ politicians, you probably need to bribe someone if you want anyone to lift a finger.