Last week, I wrote about figurative sunshine and roses. How many times do you get to go stomp around the White House grounds, right? Shouldn't I push the memories of stress related sweat trickling down my spine out of my head?
It seems I did a little bit to good of a job with the mental cleanse of that one, because when Matt received another email announcing free unscheduled access to the grounds for Garden Tours, I jumped at the chance. Of course I want to go! I want to write about real sunshine and roses!
We started off with a good plan. Brunch at Founding Farmers followed by a stroll through the White House gardens! How could we go wrong? Well, for one we didn't realize the IMF World Bank Meetings were going on. Right next door to Founding Farmers. Blocking streets and sidewalks galore. And we seemed to forget about the fact that Clare won't sit longer than 5 minutes to eat. The out-of-this-world beignets did hold her in her seat for a solid 7 minutes, but after that she spent the hour dancing in her chair and receiving glares from the wait staff.
Inside the White House gates we faced another entirely new problem. A week ago they had free access to run across the luscious grass. Today, there were heavy chains and Secret Service protecting the blades. My children, Clare in particular, did not care of this. At all.
I think it became a game with her. After a few rounds of "How far can I get onto the green?" I was done. And the worst part? I pictured formal gardens squirreled away in some secret part of the lawn. Nope, the garden tour was mile markers with pictures of presidents planting trees.
Any pictures I have of the event I deleted from my phone. My children were pissed off the entire time. I was drenched in sweat. The one upside? We were within a stones throw of of access to the front portico.
And we seemed to amuse the guards.
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