a visit to the botanical gardens

mr. pike and i hopped on our bikes this past wednesday for a mid-week trip to the chicago botanical gardens. we had yet to visit and thought it about time to take a peek. the only charge at the gardens is for parking - that's when we thought about riding instead of driving. and the ride wasn't too far - 3.4 miles on pretty flat terrain.

with 23 display gardens on 385 acres, we could hardly see it all in one night. but, the glimpses we did see were beautiful. we especially loved the japanese garden; they were so serene and peaceful (see top right photo). and the coneflowers were more than four feet tall! (see bottom right photo).

thoughts from mr. pike:
the sun peaked in and out of the tree lined terrain, casting shadows on the dusty bike trail. looking down the path at mrs. pike and soaking in the the beauty that surrounded me, i thought to myself, "self, it doesn't get any better than this." i took the statement back shortly after we arrived at our destination. the pathway to our destination was indeed lovely, but the massive gardens were phenomenal.

i enjoyed the family fun, provided by the park brochure we picked up at the visitor center. the brochure showed small pictures of landmarks to spot while moseying through the gardens (sort of like, "where's waldo"). my personal favorite was the sleeping lion (pictured here).

another thought from mrs. pike:
riding back from the gardens, we spotted some small garden plots along side the bike path. a couple was working in their plot, and we stopped to ask them how they got this little garden. the man told us we could have our own plot down the path, hadn't been used for 10 years. mr. pike and i looked at each other with wide eyes - a little land of our own! we rode down to our plot only to find it overgrown with trees and weeds. mr. pike and i feel like frontiersman having to clear our land to build a garden. one day we may have our own little botanical garden.