[ironclaw]

Thanks for your response, ftuely. Hopefully, it will provide some guidance for others, as we did the White House tour - as scheduled - in October. Turns out that since we were two couples, we just split up. The Park Service ranger didn't hold us strictly to the scheduled time of the tour, just checked to see that we were indeed on the list as having arranged for the tour with our congressperson. So my in-laws went first, while we held onto their stuff. Then - the downside - they had to walk back to the entrance point from the exit point (a couple of long blocks), and took our stuff while my wife and I took the tour. In-laws had meantime re-walked the two long blocks back to the exit to meet back up with us.

We weren't driving, which made the Union Station solution problematical. (Took the Metro into town from Vienna, VA.) Still don't know what a single tourist could do to easily comply with restrictions, but even a couple could handle logistics like we did. Certainly would cut down on the "sharing" of the experience, tho'.

After doing the tour, I can't really come up with an easy fix for this problem. Best possible would be storage lockers available at entrance, but the gate IS an entrance to the White House, and some decorum has to be maintained. And there would still be the backtracking from exit point to get back to whatever storage option had been provided. Can't expect Park Service to assume responsibility for personal possessions by "checking' them, then transporting to exit point for return to owners; look at hassles airlines have with claims for lost stuff. Bottom-line best bet is probably to travel with at least one buddy....