Albuquerque Botanical Gardens

Juuuuly 2o, 2014

Hello and welcome to the Albuquerque Botanical Gardens. Lizzie and I, in our infinite effort to save money, researched discounted days to check out the gardens. So, we went on family day and saved loads! I won’t bore you with more details, but this activity was a definite and wonderful relief from the typical Albuquerque dry, hot, and brown day. Indeed, the photos below make it seem as though we left New Mexico! But we didn’t.

Really! I was happy to be visiting the gardens!

Lizzie insisted

Holy hock! As big as mine hand.

A delicious picnic of mostly leftovers.

Bob’s corn cob

Posing like (ahem) Rachel

Wicked hot all-glass greenhouse

Artistic shot

You’ve never licked a cactus?

Turtle shell vine tree thing. Really cool!

CACTUSES

Not irreverently anointing myself

Sweet as nectar haha!

A tourist train is always a must! Lizzie wouldn’t permit me to jump on for free. Mean Lizzie.

Dad, Paul or Kathy, what might this berry be?

Lizzie being a Japanese-man-fly tour guide

It’s a porcupine, a porcupine! It greatly resembles a sloth, just with quills.

Another shot of Porky Piney

Hallo George!

Artificial waterfall but real heron

A quick nap

Lizzie threw rocks into the pool and the fish loved them!

Quite the tour guide!

Dippin’ Dots! Lizzie never understood my joy.

Post traumatic stress. (Just 5 days previous a bee stung me. My foot was still swollen!)

Lizzie being a borrower

“I’m off to Antwerp,” she said, riding the beast backwards.

The botanical gardens, as well, share a plot with the Albuquerque zoo and aquarium. We saved those for another day, though. We were pooped after adventuring all over the gardens, imagining scenes, climbing on the rocks, and leaving all the designated paths. We left at the optimum time, too, for apparently the infrequent meaningless raindrops on our limbs were to soon become a downpour. We cycled home wetter ‘n fish. All in all, though, an extraordinarily beautiful day!