Botanical Gardens

This past Saturday we went to the Botanical Gardens. Rachel said that its the largest botanical garden in the nation? The world? I can't remember, but I was not disappointed! The gardens were huge, and beautifully manicured.

There were several different themes that the garden featured, such as a Chinese garden, an English woodland garden, an Ottoman garden, Japanese garden, and many others. We didn't have time for them all, but we got to see most of it. Being a resident of the county, we get in free on Saturday mornings, so we'll definitely go back soon to see the rest.

First we went to the children's garden. Annalyn wasn't thrilled at first when we got there. Traffic was a nightmare all over the city (surely a result of everyone wanting to get out and enjoy the incredible weather we've been enjoying) and Annalyn was already fed up with it. But once we made it to the children's garden she had completely changed. She got to ride the 'sheep', which is hopefully a precursor to an interest in mutton busting when she gets a little older. Plenty of inter-connecting playgrounds with different garden themes for her to play on, and she even got to plant her very own cabbage plant that she got to take home with her - we just have to get it in our vegetable garden now. There was also a sand box that was apparently a new experience for Annalyn. She's been to the beach before, but she must not have remembered it; the sand was such a wondrous new thing to her and she simply loved the texture and flow of the sand. She didn't care about the toys, she just wanted to feel the sand. Eventually, she want to feel all she could -

Took us several minutes to clean all the sand off her, and Rachel found and extra helping the next time her diaper got changed. Silly girl! Can't help but wanna keep her!

The way out of the children's garden that we decided to take proved to be challenging for not only our wee 2 year-old, but for her 6-month pregnant mother as well. Nonetheless, climbing up a rope bridge ended up being quite fun for all of us.

We went to the Chinese garden next and saw some incredible flowers there. They also had a small roughcut stone table and stone benches just right for Annalyn that reminded her of a book of hers that tells a story of a fairy table.

The boxleaf bush garden was absolutely stunning! I've never seen so many ornamental chili peppers used before! Yellows and reds and purples.....okay now I sound obsessed.... But it was still really cool to see!

Next was the English woodland garden, which was more of a forest than a garden, but there were several ground covers and a stream that sounded very relaxing. It was a really nice day, but it felt good to get out of the sun for a bit. It was about the only part of the entire place that had enough trees (that you could walk under) to give plenty of shade.

The maze was a lot of fun too. Annalyn and I chased each other around for a while. It wasn't a real challenge, but it was still a pretty good maze. 

The last area that we visited was the Ottoman garden. It had some very interesting architecture with the garden. There was a fairly elaborate sundial, but not too many markings to explain how it worked, apparently as a yearly calendar as well. Also, a neat throne and pergola at the head of the garden.

It was a fantastic outing on one of the most beautiful days we've had all summer! And we didn't even get to see everything. We'll definitely be coming back to enjoy more.