Fuller Gardens

I was a bit discombobulated from our weekend of tremendous amounts of fun, and so I didn't run my 9 miles I wanted to (I ran 6 instead) and I didn't take the boys to the beach like I thought I would.  But good decisions were made and fun was had regardless.

Somehow I convinced the boys we would go to a garden/museum for the afternoon.  They are in Karate camp which is a 1/2 day affair.  We get them at noon, and then what?  Well, today we met Daddy for lunch at a japanese restaurant.  James ate all my salad and most of my soup, tried and promptly spit out sushi.  They ate tempura, two types of dumplings and more.

Then we went to the supermarket, and they were great.  They helped me find things.  We had a debate for a few minutes on buns - to get potato or plain, or sesame.  They helped me carry bags to the parking lot.  And then I got them dressed, in the parking lot, into their "handsome clothes" - they did this willingly and without surprise, this is how much I have engrained this in them. And then they got excited to go to the gardens.

We got to the garden on a beautiful ride. It is so gorgeous around there that if we wanted to make a whole day I would have certainly left my car in that lot and walked to the beach for a picnic.  We arrived at just the right time for a tour bus to unload which was a mess.  The only attendance was totally engrossed in the tour bus and didn't seem to psyched about me having the kids there.  Oh well.  We put money in the donations jar and went in anyway.  We tried to get the the furthest corners of the place first so I could take some great photos without anyone strange in the background.

They loved it.  They had a great time getting lost in the gardens, and posing with the statues (lots of the bus people were super cuted-out by all of this).  And, of course the koi pond was a major hit.  Someone came out to feed the koi too and all of us were enthralled.

We all picked our favorite flowers, (I should say selected, we didn't pick and went over that rule).  They pointed out some of the flowers that we have, and at one point Joel actually sat down and meditated - as he is learning this in Karate right now.

I can only guess that this place changes constantly with the seasons, it looks like we may need to visit again and bring Ama and Grumpy too.  I wonder if they let you picnic (my guess is a resounding no there… but still.).  Logistics are that the parking is pretty easy, it is not cheap at all - $9 per adult, $4 per child and no age is free except for carried infants.  So, it is an expensive outing (in my opinion, my Museum is $6 per adults, and free 6 and under),  but is very pretty.  There is a very small gift shop, and the bathroom is a port a potty enclosed in a pergola.  But it was fine.

I think it would be best to bring walking littles here, giving them soft cushy green space and lots to look at to keep them busy, sad I missed that stage but at least I found it eventually!