Museum of the Shenandoah Valley: Glen Burnie House & Gardens

Date of Visit: May 14, 2015

The Glen Burnie House and Gardens are part of the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley. The gardens are mostly accessible, especially in front of the house. The first floor of the house is also accessible.

The gardens are partly under restoration, but there's still several areas to explore. One of the most interesting areas we went through was the Pink Pavilion. At first it seemed inaccessible because there are steps, but we found we were able to get there from a path off to the side of the Pink Pavilion and there's just a small step to get inside, which was worth doing because it was fun to see the decor, especially since Mik's sweatshirt hood matched the floor.

The Glen Burnie House is wheelchair accessible from the front. Inside Mik particularly enjoyed the miniature of the house.

There is a lift to get down to the drawing room. This room currently has a special exhibit called "Beauty and Botany" with botanical art. There is then an exit to a patio with a ramp exit back into the gardens.

  
Destination Info:
Museum of the Shenandoah Valley
901 Amherst Street
Winchester, VA, 22601

National Arboretum: Dogwood Collection

Date of Visit: April 19, 2015

The Dogwood Collection was the main reason I wanted to visit the National Arboretum this time of year. There is parking near it, but it was full and we ended up taking the last spot in parking up the hill for the Asian Collection.

There is a short paved path to a little area with some benches, but it really doesn't get you close to any of the dogwood. The grassy areas you can go on to further explore the collection aren't too hard to navigate, although it is a hillside and there are some holes and Dad almost dumped Mik when he wasn't paying close attention. The path also leads to an overlook of the Anacostia River.

Destination Info:
National Arboretum
3501 New York Avenue NE
Washington, DC 20002

National Arboretum: National Bonsai & Penjing Museum

Date of Visit: April 19, 2015

The National Bonsai & Penjing Museum is one of the main reasons we visited the National Arboretum and what Mik was most interested in. He really enjoyed seeing the different varieties and styles of bonsai. I think he still wants to grow his own, but he's already hoping to revisit these next month for World Bonsai Day.

Currently, the Japanese Pavilion is being renovated, but those bonsais are currently in the courtyard so they can still be enjoyed.

The Chinese Pavilion was interesting in that they incorporate rocks and small statues in many of them. There is also a small garden path in the middle, although Mik didn't enjoy walking through that because the wheelchair barely fit on the path and there were plants that rubbed against him.

The North American Pavilion was the least accessible as the paths were gravel, which was quite thick in parts, but it did have Mik's favorite bonsais. He particularly liked the California Junipers.

The Tropical Conservatory is also very accessible except for the fact you have to go through the North American Pavilion to get to it.

Destination Info:
National Arboretum
3501 New York Avenue NE
Washington, DC 20002

National Arboretum: National Capitol Columns

Date of Visit: April 19, 2015

There is a parking area including handicap spots near the National Capitol Columns area of the National Arboretum, but we just walked over from where we had parked at the visitor center. The route from there is partially a road closed to general traffic and then there's a sidewalk path that angles towards it.

There columns and stones were originally part of the East Portico of the Capitol and are set up on a hill. There is sidewalk path up to the right and left. The floor area between the columns is not entirely even, but they are originally steps from the Capitol and certainly still very accessible, especially compared to how it is offroading to really explore much of the garden collections.

Destination Info:
National Arboretum
3501 New York Avenue NE
Washington, DC 20002

Season's Greenings 2014 at United States Botanic Garden

 

Date of Visit: December 3, 2014

Mik was a little leery about the Season's Greenings exhibit at the United States Botanic Garden being something he would love as I kind of lost my credibility from the Union Station outing the other day. However, I quickly gained it back as soon as we entered the Garden Court and he saw the Capitol Building model; and he now totally understood why I took him to Union Station first as it would have been way more ho hum if we visited after this even if their model train was running.

The first area you enter is the Garden Court and they have traffic controlled to go to the right to the Model Train exhibit in the East Gallery. The Garden Court is kind of set up as a miniature National Mall with several building models made of plant materials. Most you can see better when coming back around to the Garden Court before exiting; but the Supreme Court one is along the one way path into the Model Train exhibit.

This year's theme for the Model Train exhibit is the Seven Seas. Mik absolutely loved this area, which reminded him a little of the Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures in Tucson (one of his favorite museums ever as a miniature lover). He enjoyed looking at the various lighthouse models as well as the ships.

Mik choose the Block Island Southeast Lighthouse as his favorite model.

For the ship models his favorite was, of course, Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge.

The trains were okay. The whole Thomas the Train thing is little too on the kiddie side and the more realistic trains are up high and thus a little hard to really enjoy. However, we did find the dragon one to be a cool and surprising part of the exhibit.

Near the exit there is a tunnel to go through that has little displays like you're under the sea. They seem to represent 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Mik was glad we decided on the manual chair today not only because he could really enjoy the exhibit and not worry about maneuvering around all the little kids; but also because he wouldn't have probably been too tall to do the tunnel part in it.

Before heading back to the Garden Court to see the rest of the D.C. landmark models we wandered through parts of the rest of the Botanic Garden including visiting the desert area where Mik declared he loves the fuzzy cacti the most; but as an Arizona boy he would never dare get anywhere near too close to any cacti no matter how snuggy they look.

We also visited the West Gallery where there is a large Christmas tree decorated, which includes some more miniature buildings and a train going around it. We didn't stay here long since a bunch of little kids were playing and having fun in here and Mik didn't like the loudness that resulted from that.

Final area to explore was the Garden Court where I had to show Mik the White House model to show him how ridiculous it was that he called the Capitol model the White House when we first entered the Botanic Garden. By the way he had kind of already realized was a very silly thing to have said as the Botanic Garden is right next to the Capitol and we were talking about it being ugly with the scaffolding before we entered the Botanic Garden and saw the model.

When we first got to the Botanic Garden he had wanted to do a photo in front of the Capitol model when we got around to the front of it before leaving. However, as we were about to do that I pointed out the Botanic Garden model and he decided that made more sense.

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

National Gallery of Art - Sculpture Garden

Date of Visit: March 22, 2011

The National Gallery of Art's Sculpture Garden is usually fun to walk around, although the one across the mall at the Hirshhorn is slightly more interesting in my opinion.  However, on this trip to D.C. we hit the Sculpture Garden at the worst timing.  For one, they were in the process of the switch over from the ice rink to the fountain.  Secondly, they were washing the sidewalks, so half the paths were closed and thus we could not see more than half the sculptures.

Note that some of the paths are dirt, but they are well packed down and even Mik rolled on it fine when he wanted to come over to me when I went close to a sculpture to take a photo.

Photos by Kjersti
Text by Kjersti with Mik's wheelchair accessibility input

Destination Info:
National Gallery of Art - Sculpture Garden
7th St and Constitution Ave
Washington, DC

Botanical Building at Balboa Park, San Diego

Date of Visit: February 25, 2011

The Botanical Building is a nice garden inside an interesting lath structure building.  We enjoyed walking around it and photographing the flowers.  The garden is accessible with the pathways all being wide enough and the doors to the building were propped open.

Mik had one minor complaint as we approached the building from the lily pond out front.  It was that there were two steps up before you got to the building and he did not think there was a ramp.  Both sides of the pond have the steps and both sides have a ramp off to the side of where the steps are.  It is pretty obvious once you get to the steps.  I noticed the ramp a ways off, but apparently from Mik's position in his wheelchair it was not obvious until we got much closer.

Photos by Kjersti
Text by Kjersti with Mik's wheelchair accessibility input

Destination Info:
Botanical Building at Balboa Park's website
1549 El Prado
San Diego, CA 92101