On Saturday, September 11th, 2011, Pattie and I went to the Chicago Botanical Gardens. They turned out to be much better than I had expected! The place is huge and has a wonderful arrangement of fun walkways, bridges, and many other interesting places to poke around in. We were there for 4 hours and could have easily spent another 4 hours exploring.
Pattie had been a member of the gardens for three years; however, this was her first chance to actually see them. Entering the gardens is free, but it costs $20 to park your car! Since Pattie had a membership, parking was free for her.
The first picture below is actually Lake Geneva, not the Botanical Garden. We went there on Friday for some sightseeing and walking around. This was the only picture I took from that trip.
My good friend Pattie showing me Lake Geneva.Charles at the entrance to the Chicago Botanic Garden.Colorful lilies in a pond.A beautiful walkway.An ornamental Bonsai tree.Pattie relaxing!The walkway in front of the bench in the previous picture.I LOVE waterfalls!This is a movie taken by the waterfalls and shows the great views we had down the hill.A man-made river flowing through the gardens.Pattie about to cross the bridge to the Japanese gardens.The pond/lake around the island the Japanese garden was on.The bridge we crossed as we were leaving the Japanese garden. It is the same bridge we used to get to the garden.A cafe patio with a view.The Executive Chef Partner of the Big Bowl restaurants, Marc Bernard, was giving a demo on making a Honey Apple Crisp. It was good! The Botanical Garden has famous chefs give these demos on the weekends. They are designed to show you how to make restaurant-quality meals at home. Over the years, they have become very popular with both the public and with chefs. Marc had to sign-up to do these demos in January! He said he was a bit late last year. When he got around to it, all the demo slots were filled!The end of a marvelous day at the gardens.
