Rain and flowers

I was so looking forward to showing Carolyn San Francisco today, but the weather had a mind of its own. It was pouring rain. We decided to ignore it and do something fun, anyways. When we lived in Virginia, I would take the children to the Botanical Gardens many times during the year. The flowers and the special exhibitions would change there quite often. We loved the aroma and the exotic look of the many flowers displayed there, as well as the mini wooden replicas of the various buildings found in the mall. So regardless of the rain, we gathered the boys up and drove straight to San Francisco aiming to arrive and enjoy the beauties of the Conservatory of Flowers. We weren't disappointed. They had a variety of flowers and plants, around 2,000 rare and beautiful ones from around the world. The boys, of course liked playing with the water in the little ponds with gold fish, as well as lily pads. They especially liked learning about and looking at some carnivorous plants that looked to me like elf shoes.



As always I was looking forward to seeing the water lilies with their giant lily pads, since they are my favorite flowers. And having read that Victoria Amazonica, or the Amazon water lily one of the biggest water lilies in the world, was to be found there, I was truly excited. Imagine my disappointment when I learned that they weren't in season yet. I took comfort in the idea that I could actually come back anytime I wanted, as well as in taking some beautiful pictures of sweet smelling orchids.

The building itself is the oldest glass-and-wood Victorian greenhouse in the Western Hemisphere. Today, there were five different displays found in the building: Aquatic Plants, Highland Tropic (this room was cold; the elevation for these flowers to exist was supposed to be between 3000 and 7000ft), Lowland Tropics (I never saw so many palm tree varieties in one place), Potted Plants (I loved the fruit trees, cactuses, and the many colors found in this room). The Special Exhibition was a very interesting display of many highlights of San Francisco. It was interesting because the displays were made by using ordinary items such as computer parts, kitchen utensils, cereal boxes etc. All in all, this was a very enjoyable and relaxing field trip.

Later on when Carolyn took us all to dinner, we were greeted by a beautiful and gigantic rainbow. Nice ending to a rainy day...