Japanese Gardens

庭園

Japanese Gardens
Fort Worth, TX
May 10, 2008

We decided that we needed to to get out. The kids were about two minutes from literally bouncing off the walls. Ryan and I like to go and see the sites around the city. Fortunately for us we have two large cities to choose from. We decided to go to the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. The day was close to perfect. It was beautifully sunny, a light breeze and about 85+ degrees outside. While it was warm, we had a really good time and the girls were able to get out some of their pent up energy.

Ryan and our girls. Again, due to the sun we put Ryan and Adeline in a hat. They (OK, Ryan) thanked me later for that foresight.)

No Japanese Garden would be complete without a rock garden.

Throughout the grounds they had stone/concrete figures of various buildings of Japan. Most aren't very big, but added a nice touch to the feel of the gardens.

Here I am standing next to one.

As you can see there really isn't much in bloom in this garden, but we were able to entertain ourselves nicely...

by watching and feeding the Koi. Kyra loved, Loved, LOVED watching and feeding the Koi fish. It was sometimes a bit scary when she would try for a better look or aim (throwing the fish food) and it would seem like she was about to go for a swim herself. Fortunately she stayed out of the pond or she would have ruined her new princess shirt she chose to wear that day.

The Koi were crazy. When the first pellets hit the water only a few fish were around, but after the second or third bit of pellets hit it was a full on feeding frenzy. You could actually see ripples in the water where Koi from other parts of the pond were B-lining it to where you were. It was like sharks coming in for the kill. They made this weird sucking noise when their mouthes came above the water. They were crazy.

Kyra wanted a chance to pose in front of one of the "buildings" as well.

Daddy and Kyra found a turtle swiming in the pond. Kyra was very excited about seeing it swim around.

Addy enjoyed watching the little waterfall and hearing the noise of the water hitting the lower pond.

Ryan and his girls taking a break in the shade of a bamboo forest. Another must have in a Japanese Garden.

Mom and her girls taking a quick break on the stairs. We had the double stroller so stairs were off-limits, but we were able to find alternate routes allowing us to see everything and only deal with the occasional set of stairs.

Our Addy girl standing and stretching her legs. This little one is full of surprises. She is trying to walk and can for about 7 steps before plopping down on her tush. Here she kept trying to walk down the stairs. She may be advanced, but she's not quite ready for stairs yet.

We stopped at another spot to feed the Koi fish. I took this opportunity to put sunblock on all of our pasty white skin. This is what happens when you try to put sunblock on the top of someones head and they have hair. I highly recommend using sunblock if you run out of gel.

This was the "top" of the pond. I keep saying pond, but this thing was HUGE! It spread throughout the 7 acre garden and it had three or four levels.

This was the largest of the building structures they had in the garden. I'm not sure what it is of, but I believe it is a temple or part of a palace.

We asked some nice people to take a family picture for us. We have lots of pictures of one of us with the girls, but hardly any with us all.

Mission Complete:

About 5 minutes after getting in the car and BLASTING the A/C Kyra fell asleep.

About a minute after that Addy too was asleep. They slept all the way home. We drove a bit slower than (our) normal to allow the girls extra time to sleep. Once at home they were up, but it was a nice drive with them sound asleep.