Fun at the Botannical Gardens

 I thought this year's display was the best ever!

The theme was "animal houses" and they had an amazing variety.

 This was my favorite: an Opposum Opartment!

Each house was a miniature marvel, carefully constructed of twigs, acorn caps and bark.

 We also enjoyed the rest of their displays, especially their enormous glassed-in two tiered jungle.

I think the best might have been seeing the banana trees with actual bananas and the cocoa tree with real cocoa pods.  Oooh!  We saw a kumquat tree with fruit, also!

They also have a kids exploration room where you can smell all sorts of things that come from plants.  These range from the commonplace cinnamon sticks, to the exotic pampas grass.

It's all done in this amazing giant metal garden where the "flowers" contain all the different things to smell.  Very cool!