Even a fair number of the Everton party who have made the journey to the US were surprised when the pictures of Frank Lampard in the White House dropped.
The top secret event caught plenty off guard after the invitation was extended and, as a result, Lampard and his coaching team received a private tour of a building almost as famous as Goodison Park. The Blues boss, along with assistant manager Joe Edwards and coaches Chris Jones, Paul Clement, Ashley Cole and Alan Kelly toured the Oval Office, the Cabinet Room and the Roosevelt Room.
Lampard, a press conference veteran, still couldn't resist a photograph behind the lectern in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. The trip was a far cry from the coaching team's experience of the White House before Monday's trip. Before then it had been a landmark on early morning runs before they took the players across the Potomac River, past the sight of the Pentagon, and onto training in the Virginia suburbs.
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The team has now left Washington DC after its final training session at a high school that boasted magnificent pitches and athletics facilities - including one NFL field aptly named the Hummel Bowl, which had stands capable of holding 2,800 spectators.
The team has now arrived in Minneapolis for the final days of its US tour, landing on Tuesday in time for Alex Iwobi and Cole to appear at an event organised by the club and next opponents Minnesota United at the Mall of America. The mall is the biggest in North America and boasts an indoor aquarium.
Cole and Iwobi, both commanding huge cheers from the hundreds of Blues gathered for the event, gave their interviews against the backdrop of a Nickelodeon-themed fair ground inside the complex.
The squad landed in the North Star state on Tuesday but an advance party was sent out 24 hours earlier. That included Leon Osman, who has not stopped on this tour. Osman led the line at a Latin-influenced craft brewery on Monday night as Blues made the effort once again to gather and share their stories. The highlight was his advice on how to escape a Thomas Graveson headlock: "I just played dead."
In between his packed itinerary Osman, who I have not once seen turn down a request for a chat or a picture, has been using electric scooters to make efficient use of his time - including to sightsee at the US Bank Stadium, home of the Minnesota Vikings NFL side, and overlook the Mississippi River, which begins its journey south in Minnesota yet is still an impressive sight even in its first miles.
Minneapolis is once again proving that Blues can be found anywhere. On Tuesday morning I got up early to walk to the US Bank Stadium myself and bumped into Everton royalty - a relative of the great Howard Kendall. Everton supporters really are everywhere and meeting them on this trip has been a massive privilege. Hopefully they will now get to see a win, even if it is against club legend Adrian Heath.
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