Kids’ State Dinner Part II: White House Gardens Tour

Coming out of this door of the White House was so cool!

In yesterday’s post I gave you the best event first: the actual dinner at the White House, but the day included much more than that. We took a bus tour of DC first, and then after the dinner we went outdoors with White House Chef Sam Kass and toured the White House Gardens.

From what we learned, this presidency is the first one to utilize vegetable gardens since the days of Eleanor Roosevelt. Mrs. Obama planted the gardens with the help of children who volunteered their time and the gardens are tended to by volunteers as well as White House staff. Many of the meals prepared in the White House kitchens feature the in-season items from these gardens.

It was beautiful outdoors at the White House and it was such a cool feeling to go out the door of the White House, into the “yard” and be inside the gates. We could see everyone outside the gates lined up and looking in at us. I waved to all of them and they waved back to me.

Bo, the White House dog

It was fun to see Bo, the White House dog, although he wouldn’t come to me when I called his name, he’s clearly much better

We appreciated seeing the normalcy of a swing set in the side yard at the White House.

trained than my dog is! It was also heartwarming to see a swing set in the side yard for the Obama girls to play on. It made it look so “normal” there, mixed in with all the Secret Service vehicles and all of the fountains and formal flower gardens.

I personally only took a couple of photos of the garden tour because I only have 125 spots on my camera card, and yes, I took about 125 photos of the Kids’ State Dinner event. Therefore, most of the actual garden photos in this post today are courtesy of Caroline herself, unless she’s in them.

At the end of the garden tour, every winner was given a glass jar of honey from the White House bee hives, complete with a patriotic ribbon tied around the rim. Kind of the way one might never want to wash a hand again that’s been shaken by someone famous, like I don’t know, a president….I never want to use that honey.

Ever.

I have, however, washed my hands.

Enjoy this glimpse “behind the scenes” in the White House Garden, and be sure to check back tomorrow to see the first recipe I’m featuring from our own copy of “The Healthy Lunchtime Challenge Cookbook.”