National Arboretum

We saw the US National Arboretum for the first time on Saturday. Our friends Ethan and Wendi, and their twins Calvin and Josiah, have a family gardening plot there. There was an ice-cream social for all of the family gardeners on Saturday, so they invited us to come and see the garden. One of the best parts was that it was sponsored by Ben and Jerry's! The ice cream was free to all, so we helped ourselves. I had two small dishes of "Phish Food," which is very similar to rocky road, and a small dish of chocolate chip cookie dough. Karl had strawberry ice cream and strawberry-kiwi sorbet.

We also came home with some produce from the garden. Ethan and Wendi gave us a bagful of tomatoes of many colors--from green striped, to yellow, to tomato red. I also got three varieties of basil from the herb garden. All we need now is a hunk of fresh mozzarella! They also gave us a yellow squash. I'm still deciding what to do with it. If you have a good recipe, please email it to me!

mmm


the herb garden

basil!

There were activities for the children, including face painting, music, and crafts. The boys made garden flags out of paper which they used in a parade. Somehow, poor Ethan got put in charge of assembling the children for the parade. It was fun watching him corral children wearing cucumber and tomato costumes, waving flags, and shaking rattles full of beans.

Ethan gets a break from parade leading to snap some pictures


the arboretum's coordinator takes over the parade with a drum

On the way out, we drove by the "capital pillars." They were once part of the US Capitol, but removed when the capitol was expanded in 1958. Somehow they ended up in the arboretum. There is a small fountain in the center of them, which we could barely see from the car. Kind of a weird scene, if you ask me. But at least they are out to see instead of in a warehouse somewhere.