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(CBS) WASHINGTON With smiles and handshakes, President Bush and his wife, Laura, quietly welcomed Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, to the White House on Wednesday as the royal couple made a low-key entrance to the nation's capital.

There were no military bands, no pomp and ceremony. Just the president and first lady waiting in the White House driveway when a limousine pulled up at the South Portico carrying the prince and the Duchess of Cornwall.

Charles was first out of the car with a handshake for Mr. Bush. Camilla exited the other side of the limousine and came around the back with a handshake for Mrs. Bush. There were no air kisses or hugs. Mr. Bush and the prince patted each other on the back. Camilla was overheard to say "fabulous" about something.

There was a small guest list for lunch: the president's mother, Barbara, his sister, Doro, and her husband, Robert Koch, and the president's brother, Marvin, and his wife Margaret. Also, Sir David Manning, the British ambassador to the United States, and his wife, Lady Catherine, and Robert Tuttle, the American ambassador to Britain, and his wife, Maria.

Camilla was wearing an indigo blue chiffon dress and matching jacket designed by Robinson Valentine, a design team with a salon in London's Kensington district.

CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer told The Early Show that Camilla is only in the U.S. for a week, but she packed 40 outfits for the trip � part of an effort to overhaul her image from "the other woman" in Charles' marriage to Princess Diana, to that of a full-fledged royal.

Interest in the visit has been subdued in Washington, which has been preoccupied with scandals involving top White House and congressional figures, battles over a Supreme Court vacancy and the rising death toll in Iraq.

After lunch the couple visited an innovative public boarding school where they were met by students holding hand-painted banner proclaiming enthusiastically � but inaccurately � "Welcome Prince Charles and the Duchess of Wales." Camilla is the Duchess of Cornwall.

Accompanied by Laura Bush, Charles and Camilla met students at the SEED School, a public boarding school in a working class area of Washington. The Early Show national correspondent Tracy Smith says that the school is the nation's first urban, coed public boarding school. The royal couple was shown around classrooms before planting an English Oak tree in the school grounds.

The day's main event was a black tie White House dinner attended by Washington's political, academic and business elite. The president, who is known to prefer early nights, has hosted only five formal White House dinners for world leaders since taking office in 2001.

About 130 people were expected for dinner in the State Dining Room on the White House's grand main floor. The menu and guest list were both being kept under wraps by the White House � as was any potential embarrassment over the prince's passionate environmentalism.

Neither the White House nor Charles' office would say whether the prince planned to raise the issue of global warming, which he recently called "terrifying." Mr. Bush's refusal to sign the Kyoto climate-change accord has angered many environmentalists.

Asked if the president wanted to discuss climate change, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Mr. Bush "looks forward to the visit. He's glad to talk about whatever issues Prince Charles may want to bring up."

The royal couple began their weeklong trip Tuesday in New York, visiting ground zero and the United Nations and mingling with celebrities at a glitzy Museum of Modern Art reception.

CBS News correspondent Bianca Solorzano said visiting the site was the first step on a trip designed to strengthen a transatlantic bond between the two countries.

The trip � the couple's first joint overseas tour since marrying in April � is designed both to promote trans-Atlantic ties and to glamorize the resolutely middle-aged royals.

At the MOMA reception, Charles told guests, including Sting and Donald Trump, he was pleased "to celebrate the long-standing and very special links between our two countries."

The reception did not exactly reach the frenzy that welcomed Charles 20 years ago on a U.S. tour that saw his radiant wife, the late Princess Diana, dancing with John Travolta at a White House dinner.

The U.S. tour is part of a careful palace plan to win acceptance for the duchess, long reviled in the British press � and among Diana-philes � as the woman who broke up the royal romance.

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(CBS) WASHINGTON With smiles and handshakes, President Bush and his wife, Laura, quietly welcomed... Bushes Welcome Royal Coupl