Showing posts with label Gardens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gardens. Show all posts

Saturday, February 10, 2024

McKee Botanical Garden


Date of Visit: January 10, 2024

McKee Botanical Garden was Mik's pick of attraction for last year's Vero Beach trip, but we did not get around to going. Making sure we visited this year was a priority considering Mik was hesitant about the whole family trip this year because last year he felt like he did nothing, which was rather true.


We started our visit to the McKee Botanical Garden with the Hall of Giants, which turned out to be a good place to start as it provides some history of the place. The table make from a piece of wood is also impressive.


Mik liked the nearby Spanish Kitchen, which had a grill that could cook a lot of steaks (100 or something like that, I think) at once.


Next we began walking the paths to find all of the different bird sculptures part that were on display around the garden for the "A Tropical Flock of Avian Avatars" exhibit. We found the paths through the garden easy enough to navigate as mostly packed gravel, but there was some going in the grass and dirt for the sculptures.


The "Sanctuary" sculpture was one of the ones you could walk through. Approaching it Mik did not think he'd be able to go inside, but it was plenty wide enough.


The "Platinum Peahen" was another one you could walk through. This one was do able, but it was a little room for error on the ramp. It probably would have been fine if they had just made that whole entrance a ramp and not partially stairs.


"Lift Off" was over one of the bridges in the watery maze area of the garden.


Mik's favorite part was the colorful Cortada columns.


Overall we enjoyed strolling through the McKee Botanical Garden. In particular, we enjoyed finding the different bird sculptures. Without those, though, not sure it would have been a worthwhile visit as it felt more like just walking through a park rather than a botanic garden as I expect more signage and information to learn about the plants when visiting a botanic garden and there was pretty much none.

Destination Info:
McKee Botanical Garden
350 US Highway 1
Vero Beach, FL 32962

Tuesday, December 20, 2022

U.S. Botanic Garden: Seasons Greenings 2022

Date of Visit: December 20, 2022

This year the Seasons Greenings exhibit had the best format for the trains and the buildings, but it disappointed us with the actual layout of the trains and theme.

We really enjoyed the trains remained outside. However, it was more of a compact design and seemed to have less trains or at least they were mostly longer loops so it was awhile between seeing a train in each area. The main disappointment, though, is that it was the same farming theme as last year with nothing new for the theming and actually seemed to be less.

We also didn't like that the path around the trains was all off the regular paths. While they did have a mat path that made it easy to roll on, the mat did not fix the issue of it not being level, so I had to be careful where we stopped because Mik felt like he would tip over sideways at parts.


We really enjoyed the DC landmark buildings being back inside in the Conservatory. Made it much easier to see them than the windows last year.

Mik's favorite was Union Station, which we're not sure if we've seen before or not.

Before heading back to the hotel, we attempted to check out the Capitol Christmas tree as Dad told us they had finally fixed the issue of not being able to roll up to it by adding a path. However, we were unable to get on to the path because the barricades weren't open wide enough for the wheelchair.

Destination Info:
United States Botanic Garden
100 Maryland Avenue SW
Washington, DC 20001

Thursday, December 2, 2021

U.S. Botanic Garden Holiday Train Display 2021: Farming Around the World


Date of Visit:
November 30, 2021

Last year we missed our tradition of visiting the holiday train display. Even though we had moved, we had hoped to visit DC during the holiday season and also continue the tradition of seeing Charles Esten at The Birchmere. Charles Esten did play a show, but we did not really miss the trains as they did not do it last year. This year we were able to do both again, although we thought we might again miss the trains as it was not announced until a few weeks before Thanksgiving.

It was different this year as only the outdoor gardens are open, but the train display part being outside is somewhat better. It was easier to go around and see the trains and buildings. The trees of the garden also add to the scenery. Because it is outside and it's winter, though, Mik was cold and ready to go after a few minutes (we had already spent over an hour outside walking there and at the new Dwight D. Eisenhower memorial) and I would not have even been able to spend much time looking around if Dad had not gotten distracted talking to his co-worker who was working that day.


The window displays were disappointing as they were hard to see. Also, hard to compare to how they normally are laid out inside similar to their locations on the National Mall. Dad and I did go back the next day around 4pm to see the lighted displays and they look much better that way.

Lastly, of course, we managed to get a traditional Christmas photo with the Capitol model.

Destination Info:
United States Botanic Garden
100 Maryland Avenue SW
Washington, DC 20001

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

U.S. Botanic Garden: Seasons Greenings 2019 - America's Gardens


Date of Visit: December 4, 2019

In honor of the US Botanic Garden's upcoming 200th anniversary, this year's Season's Greenings theme is America's Gardens. This year turned out to be probably our least favorite we've seen, but we were happy the Christmas tree is back in the West Gallery and impressed with the Biltmore Estate display there.


We found the different buildings representing gardens and conservatories around the country interesting, but for some reason it didn't seem as if there was as much to look at as usual.


The miniature representing the World's Largest Concrete Gnome in the Reime Gardens in Ames, Iowa was one of the more interesting models.


My favorite was the Carillon from Evening Island, Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe, Illinois.


We also liked the Bartholdi Fountain (US Botanic Garden) model.


Mik could go in this year's tunnel. He didn't want to, but I made him and it was one of the coolest displays with a moon landing model.



Another of our favorites was the Singing Tower (Bok Tower Gardens, Lake Wales, Florida).


After two years of there being no tree, it was nice to see the tree in the West Gallery back.


The Biltmore Estate model in the West Gallery was the highlight this year.


Of course, we had to get the traditional photo of Mik in front of the Capitol in the Conservatory.


While the theme was our least favorite of the six we've seen, we still enjoyed our annual tradition visiting the Season's Greening exhibit. In particular, we found the Conservatory to feel more festive and brighter this year with the way poinsettias and white light trees were used.


Destination Info:
United States Botanic Garden
100 Maryland Avenue SW
Washington, DC 20001

Sunday, May 12, 2019

2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival: Fourth & Final Visit

Date of Visit: May 6, 2019


On our last visit to Epcot together this trip (I went on my own on the 7th to do rides Mik doesn't typically do), we finally got over to the penguin sculpture near Living with the Land.


We started at Taste Track with the Violet Blueberry Vanilla Croissant Doughnut, which was tasty, but makes us miss the savory croissant doughnuts we've had at the Epcot International Art Festival.


Next we enjoyed the Sugar Cane Shrimp Shewer from La Isla Fresca.


One of our favorites was the Crab and Cheese Wontons from the Lotus House in China.


In China, we also enjoyed walking around to the Zodiac Garden to see all topiaries representing the 12 zodiac signs.


Mik finished with the Toasted Pretzel Bread at the Bauernmarkt in Germany, which was another of his favorites.

Destination Info:
2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival
Lake Buena Vista, FL

2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival: Third Visit

Date of Visit: May 5, 2019


As we got to Epcot before the food booths opened at 11am this day, we started by going through the gardens in the United Kingdom while the World Showcase was still pretty much entirely empty. The English Tea Garden is interesting in that it has the different plants that are used in different Twinnings teas growing in teacup shaped pots.


What we found most interesting, though, was the Shakespeare Garden. This area had signs with lines from different Shakespeare plays along with the plants mentioned in the lines.


For food on this visit, we started at the Northern Bloom in Canada. Mik had the Seared Scallops, which he thought were okay. He liked my Maple Popcorn Shake more.



Next at the Flavor Full Kitchen, Mik enjoyed the Cookie Butter Worms and Dirt, which ended up being his favorite beverage this year, while I had the Citrus-poached salmon.


We tried the Smoked Salmon Stack at Arbor next, which neither of us liked much mainly because it seemed too salty.


Mik enjoyed the Grilled Sweet Corn on the Cob from Trowel & Trellis as our final stop this visit. We ended up with two cobs because the guy serving them said they were small.

Destination Info:
2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival
Lake Buena Vista, FL

Saturday, May 4, 2019

2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival: Second Visit

Date of Visit: May 4, 2019


For our second visit to the 2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival, we focused on the areas at the beginning of the World Showcase. Our first stop was the Citrus Bloom, where we tried the lobster tail, which we liked the taste of, but found hard to get off the shell as tends to be the norm for lobster...


Next we stopped at the Honey Bee-stro. Mik enjoyed the honey-peach cobbler freeze and the chicken flatbread.


Nearby we checked out the Goodness Garden Butterfly House. There's lots of butterflies to see, but not that interesting to us because it just seemed like they were mostly flying by the netting trying to get out.


Next we stopped by the Gardeners Terrace where Minnie's Garden Party is going this weekend only. Here we picked up the button they were giving out and also tried the fried green tomatoes at Arbor, which Mik didn't like, but I got them mainly for me and I liked them except the paprika oil does make them spicy.


Our last stop was dessert from Pineapple Promenade. Mik had the pineapple soft-serve ice cream and I had the desert violet lemonade (sadly my flower blew away as I was carrying the items back to Mik).


On the way out of Epcot to park hop over to Magic Kingdom, we stopped for a photo because Mik wanted one with his Darth Vader socks for Star Wars Day. We were going to do a photo in Hollywood Studios earlier in the day, but we were just done with the park after discovering that we couldn't use our Toy Story Mania fastpass because the wheelchair accessible vehicle was down.

Destination Info:
2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival
Lake Buena Vista, FL