Did I tell you about the garden tour?
What garden tour?
I guess I didn’t tell you. Do you want to know about it?
Actually, I…
We had gone to Washington, D.C. to visit friends who had moved there. We went to see Melissa and Carlyle and Trudy’s friend Karen who was following her boss who had taken a cabinet secretary position. And it turned out that the White House liaison in the agency was giving out tickets to the fall Whitehouse garden tour.
…but I…
We felt so… connected. How many degrees of separation from the President would that have been. Certainly only a few. We were tickled to have tickets. To be in the know.
…I see.
So we met Karen and took the metro to the White House. And when we got there, we should have known something was not quite right.
…not quite right?
Well not not quite right. I mean, not wrong. But it wasn’t as we thought. You see we had these invitations and were feeling all smug, and then we got there, and there was a very, very long line. This was not exactly a small affair. In fact, there were two lines with Park Service rangers asking if we had 1:00 or 1:30 invitations and directing us to the 1:30 line.
…that’s a shame.
But not really a shame, because the line move quickly and the people were generally in a good mood and although it was chilly in the shade, the sky was blue and the sun was shining…
…of course, blue sky and shining sun.
…and the grass was green.
..right.
So we eventually got in and gazed in earnest admiration at the various trees planted by the various presidents over the years. And we filed by the south portico.
…very nice.
And we peered into The Rose Garden and gawked at the empty podium there.
I mean this is really six degrees of separation stuff, right? What, the day before he must have been out there talking to…
…to someone.
Precisely. So anyway, we walked past the White House and admired the west side of the south lawn. There were more trees there, …
…more trees.
and we could see the Old Executive Office Building just nearby. (I’ve always been a pushover for that building.)
…of course.
Did you know that from the South Lawn you look past a fountain across the Ellipse to the Washington Monument?
…I think I knew that.
And that from there you look out across the Tidal Basic at the Jefferson Memorial?
…I didn’t…
I didn’t either. And so I must confess that this is the reason I wanted to tell you this. I wanted to tell you what a spectacular view that was, standing there beside the lush green grass of the White House South Lawn on a sunny, cloudless fall day with the White House itself behind us
gazing to the south at the Washington Monument wrapped in protective scaffolding ever since the earthquake, gazing at the Jefferson Memorial
… thru the Jefferson Memorial, because we could see daylight on the other side.
As I said, it was a spectacular view.
…very nice.
And there was the Marine Corps band playing at the foot of the hill. And there was the vegetable garden. But here’s what I really wanted to tell you.
…oh.
When we left the South Lawn and began walking around the Ellipse to the Mall, we passed a couple people who were distributing some kind of flyers. They looked like students. They had badges hanging from their necks, and they had that youthful college intern look.
…ah.
And as we got up to them, they held out the flyers to us and asked us, “Do you need tickets to the garden tour?”
…um.
The three of us looked at each other. These two interns were holding thick stacks of Fall White House Garden Tour invitations. The same select invitations that got us in. All of the sudden, we didn’t feel quite so … connected.
But whatever. We had a good time, and it was a beautiful day. We left the White House behind us and headed toward the National Gallery of Art.
…which can be a story for some other time, right?
Sure.