To try or do something new - EVERY DAY!!!: Day 45

What do you think of when you hear botanical gardens? In my mind I had always pictured some type of indoor green house as part of a botanical garden, a place you could go in the dead of winter (for example right now) and be surrounded by beautiful plants and flowers. Since today was the first day I actually went to a botanical garden I wasn't to sure what to expect.

Today after church Quinn and I headed to the botanical gardens, just about 30 minutes south of our house. It was a bit snowy and pretty cold. When we got there we went into a building just next to the parking lot, the welcome center, the only actually buidling on site - every thing else was out doors - no green house. I guess I should of done some more research . . . Anyway, we were already across town so we decided to hike around some of the trails before heading home.

While we were in the visitors center a nice mad who was volunteering gave us a map and told us a bit about the gardens. Just before we set out he mentioned a bird watching area. As we set out I was a bit disappointed that I had drug Quinn all the way out here on Valentines day (and my larger camera) in hopes of seeing flowers, but I tried to put that behind me and enjoy the wintery-walk.

The trail we started on was a wood chip trail and lightly covered with snow and pretty slick in spots and mainly down hill. Neither of us were dressed for a hike so we held on tight to each other (OK I held on for my life to Quinn) as we made our way along the trail ~ it was fun. I couldn't help but laugh at us and whispered to Quinn about how silly we must look. After about 15 minutes we made it to the bottom of the hill (without any falling, I might add) and turned onto a new path that would lead us to this bird watching spot.

We both had pretty low expectations, so as we approached the spot and saw at least 40 beautiful birds across the way we were taken over by the beauty of these colorful birds against the winter gray & brown landscape.

As we first approached most of the birds flew off, but there was a small little enclosed viewing hut that we stepped inside and within minutes many of the birds returned. I wish I had a nice zooming lens so I could of better captured all we saw . . . One of my favorite birds was this one - there was a guide in the little hut with pictures of the different birds we may see, but nothing matched up, so if you know what it is I would love to know (It looks a lot like a type of cardinal, but after some googling I am not positive)

Another interesting bird we saw was the Red Headed Wood Pecker. He was the largest bird out there and full of energy - he was never in one place for more than a couple of seconds which made it difficult to get a picture (look to the upper left)

We also saw this funny little wood pecker

While looking over the board we decide it was a Red Bellied Wood Pecker but I found on line, later, that it must be a Hairy Wood Pecker

The bird that we saw the most of was the cardinal (or at least their bright red feathers stood out the the most)

We walked back along a different trail and this was much clearer - and not icy, once back at the car we were pretty cold, but really enjoyed our first visit to the botanical gardens and are looking forward to heading back this spring

Other Firsts: Earlier in the day we stopped by a cute little bakery, Dolce, just down the street from our house and got this yummy Valentines Day dessert. (chocolate cake with raspberry filling)

My mom got me this cute apron for a valentines present. Since Quinn was in charge of dinner, I just posed with my beautiful roses while I set the table for our Valentines Day dinner at home