Monday, June 7, 2010

Weekend Getaway

We just got back from a lovely weekend vacation.  Ok, "just" is a bit misleading.  How about, I just finished unpacking, laundering the dirty clothes, washing a mountain of dishes, and sweeping up a pile of dead bugs that managed to find their way inside after we sprayed?  We got back Saturday night.

Fritz's best childhood friend got married on Friday, and Fritz was the best man.  The wedding was 4 hours' drive up north, so we had the perfect excuse for a small vacation.

We stayed at Thanksgiving Point, and it was just lovely.  The night we got there, we took a look around the shops, ate an incredible burger in their deli, and toured the botanical gardens.  55 acres of themed gardens.  Our favorites were:

The Monet Garden


The Fragrance Garden
The fragrance garden was full of raised beds with different varieties of fragrant plants.  We thought the orange mint smelled brilliant, but the ginger mint was vile.

The Secret Garden
the entrance
the exit

The Italian Garden
 To get to this garden, we had to climb a steep ramp.  This was only halfway up.
The panoramic view from the top was awesome.  The building at the end of the grass is where we entered the gardens.

The Waterfalls

Little Meggie enjoyed watching from her stroller:



She wasn't a fan of getting up close with nature, however:



On Friday, we went to Ikea.  Margaret found the experience thrilling:


Then, that evening, we went to the wedding/reception.  Fritz did his best man thang, and I got accosted by a relative of the groom, a complete stranger to me, who berated me for not visiting my in-laws enough.  That was fun.  The woman could barely contain her disdain for me (again, a total stranger), so much that even Fritz noticed and made comment of it.  Bizarre woman.

Oh, well.  At least the baby looked cute.




On Saturday, we drove up to (and got terribly lost on the way to) the Hogle Zoo.


Margaret had zero interest in the animals, but loved people-watching.

She was a champ through the 5 hour drive home afterward, though we did go to some unusual measures to entertain her the last half hour:



A+ trip, but it's good to be home.

2 comments:

alyssababyyyy said...

those were all of my favorite gardens, too. however I remember bizzare cherrubs in the secret garden. hahah :D

meg looks beautiful in all of her pictures as usual. I always have a good laugh when I see new pictures of her.

& did you get anything at ikea??

Laura Ingalls wannabe said...

But of course! We got some plastic doilies to put under cakes, pretty dish towels, a lid for inside the microwave, a splatter screen so I don't have to scream at my husband when he's making stir-fry, some plastic cups to match Meggie's bowls, a container to hold empty grocery bags, and a toilet brush.

Very practical, no?

Also, some lingonberry jam and frozen meatballs. Mmmmm!