So, out and about most of the day; walked myself into a blister that will be gone by morning by decree.

I headed out to grab a ticket to take the White House spring garden tour and as I was passing Farragut Square overheard from a tour bus “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” I’m going to have to look later to se if he really said that. I’m SURE the Internet will have accurate info…

I love this city. I love the details; that’s what makes it so much fun to walk here. It’s also what makes it take me so long to get anywhere; I keep stopping to look. I’m sure LA has just as much to look at, but we’re going too fast to see any of it. Like this post:

I passed a couple of very odd Monsanto ads on bus shelters, or should I call them propaganda?

The chance to walk around the White House gardens was well worth standing in line for, that’s certain. The tulips were done but the azaleas were in full swing still (ours in Pasadena are long gone). But what I was really after was the chance to see the kitchen garden. It much smaller than I expected it to be. Glad to see a bee hive and lots of heirloom varieties, some from Monticello that the ranger on duty kept describing as having been given to the First Lady “by Thomas Jefferson”. I think that’s a pretty neat trick of time travel…

On from there to the mall…oh, yes the new National Christmas Tree is rather sad…

Lunch at the National Gallery (you didn’t think the only food would be some nascent shelling peas, did you?) – mushroom and kale tart and beet salad.

Onward to the Holocaust Museum, which I’ve never seen and could not get into the permanent exhibits of but there was a rather fabulous exhibit of propaganda art. I happen to love political graphics so it left me very conflicted. I’m not really ready to write about it yet; I still have some sorting out to do.