Last Friday I attended the White House Fall Social Garden Tour. In short, it was awesome. You can read more about how I lucked into the Social here, and you can see a wrap-up from the White House here: A Fall Social in the #WHGarden. (Excuse me while I freak out that my name/tweets/photos are on the White House’s web site.) My twitter feed from Friday is also chock full of observations and photos.
I’ll be posting some of my thoughts about visiting the setting of my book later in the week. But first, here are some of my favorite photos from the day:
The quiet before the public tour starts
The view from the South Lawn
The White House Beehive. Best quote of the day, from Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses: They didn’t add a second hive because then the bees might fight each other for territory and, “we didn’t want any more conflict in Washington.”
Veggies growing in the Kitchen Garden
The swing set. How badly did I want to go for a swing? (Badly!) See the Oval Office behind it.
The Oval Office. Guess who was inside working?
Me, thrilled to be in the Rose Garden and standing in front of the West Wing (Eisenhower Executive Office Building in the background, too)
Crowds of people outside
Who knew there were so many grills at the White House?
ETA: Thanks for all of the compliments on my dress! It was nice to fold up my writerly pajama pants for a day. 🙂 That dress was a gift from my mother in law, and she made it!
Tonight I’m heading down to D.C. so I can attend the White House Social Fall Garden Tour tomorrow!
(Which is a special Tweetup tour of theJacqueline Kennedy Garden, Rose Garden, and the South Lawn, including the White House Kitchen Garden and beehive.)
How did I get to do this? I follow White House social media accounts on Twitter, and I applied through the White House Social website.
Needless to say, I’m really excited about seeing the grounds and being in a place that I have spent so much time imagining (particularly for fiction purposes).
I’ll be tweeting throughout the tour tomorrow, so if you’d like to follow along find me on Twitter (or check out the hashtag #WHGarden). The events start at 7:30 am EST, so look for WH tweets from me starting around that time. We are having a question and answer session with Administration officials around 10:00 am EST, so tweet me any questions you’d like to ask! Or leave them in the comments below.
