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

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

2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival

Date of Visit: May 2, 2019

Every year we talk about wanting to go to the Flower & Garden Festival again. We'll go next year turned into five years since the last time we went mainly because we started doing an annual extended family trip every January (once it was February) and then it just seemed too soon to go again for the Flower & Garden (or we were doing Destination D for our just us WDW trip for the year).

As we started our day in Hollywood Studios with Toy Story Mania fastpasses, we entered Epcot between the UK and France pavilions. After hanging out in the gift shop by the entrance for the rain to let up, we decided to start in France where Mik had one of his favorites from before - the duck confit. We also enjoyed the chilled cucumber soup.

Next we enjoyed a key lime tart and a watermelon cucumber slush (my favorite thing we had today) at Florida Fresh between France and Morocco.

Next Mik had the shredded beef brisket with smoked potato from The Smokehouse in American Adventure. He didn't particularly enjoy it, but we did like the sunflower topiaries with Mickey and Minnie.

After the brisket, Mik was full so we just strolled through the rest of World Showcase making note of what we might want to try later this week. Of course, we also strolled through Mik's favorite part of Epcot - the Romantic Road in Germany.

We also enjoyed checking out the various topiaries with my favorite being Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

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

U.S. Botanic Garden: The National Garden

Date of Visit: April 18, 2019

We didn't plan to visit the U.S. Botanic Garden today, but when we were out for a walk to play Pokemon Go (trying to catch Shiny Buneary), we ended up here and decided to explore the outside part of the U.S. Botanic Garden, which is called The National Garden. Mik thinks we may have done it before, but I don't think we have and in the end he thinks we maybe were going to explore it once with his old wheelchair and we quickly turned back around because of the gravel paths.

The gravel paths aren't the best, but they aren't the worst either. After doing it today, it does sound familiar that we tried to do it before and gave up because the casters on his last chair were horrible and it would've been a pain to go through here. Basically, it's somewhat thick in parts, but it does have an interesting set up with metal circles that appears to maybe at least help keep it evenly thick, which I guess kind of helps versus the mostly thinly graveled paths with random thick spots and potholes we came across in the National Gallery of Art's Sculpture Garden on a walk last week.

There are steps to get up to a seating area in the southwest corner of the garden. To the left there is a path, which is actually the best path in the garden.

Only problem with it is that it a little of a bump to get up on it, but otherwise it is a smooth path as the gravel is like cemented together in this area.

Mik also enjoyed the wide bridge near the amphitheatre area.

The small one in the middle of the garden he was not so much a fan of. It was possibly wide enough to roll across, but definitely not an adventure he wanted to attempt. Going on the stone path up to it was worthwhile, though, as we enjoyed watching the birds in the water there.

Overall we found The National Garden a nice area to go through. Not quite as much as we like the sculpture gardens (Hirshhorn and National Gallery of Art), but only because those have smoother paths, although at least the gravel isn't as thick as it can get in spots on the middle paths of the National Mall.

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

U.S. Botanic Garden: Seasons Greenings 2018 - All Aboard!

Date of Visit: December 7, 2018

Mik was surprised that it's really been five years that it has been a tradition for us to visit the Seasons Greenings exhibit at the U.S. Botanic Gardens. He loves the tradition, although he doesn't so much enjoy the cold weather on the way to/from. This year we were again sad that there was no Christmas tree exhibit in the West Gallery. In fact, that's where the train exhibit is as it seems they are now working on the area where they normally do the exhibit. Hopefully, that means the tree part will come back once both areas are open at the same time again.

When Dad brought us home this year's brochure after his work preview, I joked with him that is was such an original theme this year with it being called "All Aboard!" Doing it with different train depots certainly does make sense, though, and it was actually better than expected.

Mik's favorite was the Cincinnati Union Terminal.

My favorite was the Pikes Peak Cog Railway.

As usual, there was a tunnel walkthrough part and best of all this year it was back to being tall enough for Mik to roll through!

Also, as usual, the exhibit ends with an area that has two steps and a ramp that is way too steep. Just ask them to let you out the entrance and they'll move the barrier.

Before leaving we got our usual photo of Mik with the Capitol model. We also checked out the Union Station model that was added this year to the Garden Court's models of D.C.

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

U.S. Botanic Garden: Season's Greenings 2017 - Roadside Attractions

Date of Visit: November 27, 2017

This year's theme seemed like a good one and overall it was, but as Dad had warned us it wasn't one of the better years. It really was probably the least enjoyable and part of it is that they are making a new exhibit or something in the West Gallery so there isn't the big Christmas tree that is always one of our favorite things to see. Also, it just didn't seem like there was a much to see as normal or it really could just be that last year was our favorite.

Mik's favorite part was Lucy the Elephant.

He was yet again disappointed by the little tunnel that is too short for him to roll under, especially since that is where the Cadillac Ranch model was located.

The Jolly Green Giant, though, was quite impressive and my favorite part.

We also liked the new addition of the National Museum of African American History to the National Mall landmarks in the Garden Court.

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

U.S. Botanic Garden: Season's Greenings 2016 - National Parks and Historic Places

Date of Visit: November 24 & December 5, 2016

I misremembered what day we had gone last year and we ended up only seeing the Christmas tree (and Yellowstone model) in the West Gallery on Thanksgiving because there was no way we were going to wait in a line out the door and around the building to see the trains when we've always seen it with no wait and it's crowded enough in the exhibit then.

Today we visited right when it opened and enjoyed it at our own pace without too many other people in the exhibit, although there were quite a few little kids that I kept almost running over because I couldn't see they suddenly got in front of Mik.

We particularly enjoyed the exhibit this year with the theme being National Parks and Historic Places. Mik did not have a favorite this year, but only because he truly liked seeing all the different models representing the places. My favorite was the Grand Canyon National Park display because they featured the train station, which totally fits the model train theme and is also the only way we have ever visited the Grand Canyon.

We enjoyed seeing the models of some of the National Park units we've already visited and other National Parks and historic places we still want to see, such as what we call the other Monticello (the real one...not our home/boat).

Overall this was our favorite Season's Greeting theme, yet, but the tunnel area really disappointed us. They always have a tunnel and in general it is a great feature, especially for kids. However, Mik is always afraid he won't fit under and this year in fact he couldn't. He was still able to mostly see the little scenes by looking in from each end, but it's not the same, especially when it's meant to resemble the drive through tree experience. At least we have actually done that for real.

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

U.S. Botanic Garden: Season's Greenings 2015 - Pollination Station

Date of Visit: November 30, 2015

We originally were going to visit the exhibit on Thanksgiving, but we decided to instead take advantage of Dad's off day to get his help putting up the Christmas tree and go ourselves during the week, especially since Dad had already previewed the exhibit. Mik ended up not being happy about this change because today turned out to be cold and rainy. However, really the weather only got to him because when we got to L'Enfant we found the elevator to street level barricaded off and had to get back on the Metro and ended up walking from Archives (We used Federal Center SW on the way back, which really is actually the closest to the Botanic Gardens.). Very same thing happened when we went last year...

This year's theme for the model train exhibit is "Pollination Station." It features a variety of plants and pollinators as part of the display.

Mik enjoyed the train exhibit, but he couldn't pick a favorite because it just wasn't as interesting as last year's theme to him. My favorite part, though, was the bats on the cactus.

Near the end there are two different paths to take. One is a shorter one I guess meant for kids because it's so short even I had to duck. Mik wouldn't go through it because of that even though he was short enough sitting in his chair and I think he really would've liked the miniature scenes in there.

Mik's favorite part was actually the tree we happened to find in the Tropics area.

We also both found the tree in the West Gallery to be way better set up than last year. Last year the display was off in the corner, but this time it's prominently in the center. This allows you to walk all the way around the tree and better enjoy it.

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