Bay Area Trip Day 6 (Botanical Gardens)

(photo courtesy of Ursa Davis)

We slept in a little bit which is fine because often we get so caught up in seeing all that there is to see in the city that we forget that we are on a vacation and it's okay to relax. Once we got up and moving we walked down to the Haight for breakfast. I had a breakfast sandwich that consisted of a bagel, ham, and what appeared to be about 18 eggs. Ursa's babaganouj addiction has still not been sated, so that's what she had for breakfast, more baba.

(photo courtesy of Ursa Davis)

From there we walked to Golden Gate Park and the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers. This one is very much like the Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh that we visited a couple years ago. I love these types of gardens, they help me understand what a curious and amazing world we live in that produces such an astonishing variety of rich, vivid, delicate beauty. The collections of orchids there were lovely, but also the carnivorous plants could be found throughout. These upturned buckets came in a variety of sizes and colors. The plants grow high up in forest canopies where there is little soil for them to draw nutrients from, so these buckets attract bugs to them who then become trapped inside and drown in the water that collects inside. Enzymes in the water dissolve the insects who then can feed the plant.

(photo courtesy of Ursa Davis)

The final room that we went through was the butterfly exhibit. Again, the diversity of colors and patterns fascinated me as we made our way around. Fortunately for me I was apparently dressed for the occasion in a bright red shirt that the butterflies loved. They were all flitting around me and a few even landed on me.

(photo courtesy of Ursa Davis)

The cocoons of the various breeds were on display including the Zebra Longwings which were all empty and the room was filled with that particular breed. There were other breeds of course but the zebras were the most common by far on this day.

After leaving the Conservatory of Flowers it was a short walk to the Botanical Gardens. We had originally wanted to split these two stops up onto different days, but the weather is expected to take a turn for the worse starting tomorrow, so we decided to get some of our outdoor activities out of the way while we still could. And I'm glad that we did, this was a very pleasant day in the park although it did start to get a little cool by the end. The highlights of the Botanical Gardens were a group of magnolia trees that were just finishing blossoming, and their petals would drift through the air like a snowstorm every time the wind blew. The rhododendron garden was also beautiful, and we had fun chasing an Anna's Hummingbird around, trying to get a decent photo of it. I have to give Ursa all the credit, I don't think that I would have been able to get that pic. Great job Ursa!

(photo courtesy of Ursa Davis)