On Sunday, I went to Northwest River Park with my friend and fellow blogger, Emily. It was so fun catching up and finally getting to take a walk through the park with someone besides my imaginary friends! We talked about many great things, like Land Before Time and old roommates. It's funny how many similarities we share. One thing I really hope I get to know is her cooking! Her blog is filled with delicious meals that make me crave healthy eating (thanks, Emily!). My favorite part about it? She's like me... she's not someone who has money to just throw around on "being green" because it's the cool thing to do, instead she has to use her money wisely to make the best choices for her diet. Her blog is proof that I can do the same on my wimpy income!
How I managed to get a picture of the Taxodiums, but not my outfit, is beyond me!
Why haven't I visited Northwest River Park more often??
So then on Monday, my beloved day off, I had a busy day planned. I woke up to find my niece, Samantha, in the kitchen doing homework (oh yeah, I did say I would watch her today, didn't I?!). As I fixed my breakfast and helped her finish her homework, we discussed the plans for the day. I had an appointment to see an apartment in Virginia Beach in the morning, so we decided to go visit the gardens afterwards. We packed a "fruit-full" picnic lunch and headed off. The tour of the apartment went very well, both of us LOVED it! Sami gave her nod of approval and we walked off to the park down the street, where she offered to take my outfit picture...
...let me insert a funny story here: a few weeks ago, I was outside taking pictures of my outfit, and Sami came out to see what I was doing. Since my camera is small, and I had it on my tiny little tripod, sitting in the bed of the truck in the driveway, she really couldn't tell what I was doing! She was convinced I was playing a game outside by myself. I had to show her the camera to have her believe otherwise, but even then, she was sure I was playing a game! I often wonder if other style bloggers have this problem...
Ok, back to the real story! So she offered to take my outfit picture in the park:
Pretty good photography for an 8-year-old, huh? Makes me proud!
After our little photo shoot, we walked back down the beach to my car and drove off to NBG. We had so much fun at the gardens! I especially enjoyed being there as visitor rather than an employee! Normally I'm driving around in my golf-cart, flying by things so fast I don't even notice a lot of the things popping up out of the soil. I really liked being able to explore the Children's Garden a little more! Sami and I discovered a REALLY fun bridge, too! We spent a good 20-minutes playing on this one, little 3-foot bridge before moving on. We walked around the arboretum and smelled the sweet wisteria, I took a few more pictures of the Wildflower Meadow (keep an eye out for these pics, folks! I'm attempting weekly photos to capture the gradual growth of the wildflowers from ankle-height to towering-above-your-head height!), we found a table in the Enchanted Forest to eat our picnic on, and then we stumbled on some gorgeous flowering Kwanzan Cherries! Samantha loves climbing trees, so I snapped a few of her hanging from the beautiful limbs:
We also went up into the Nato Tower, which I haven't done in a long time!
Well, this is actually not in the tower, but it's close enough!
Then just before we got in the car to leave, we ran up on the airport berm and watched a plane take off! I feel like that spot is one of the hidden treasures of the gardens. While most of the time the airplanes are a big nuisance with all their noise (for those who don't know, the airport is located right nextdoor to the gardens!), it sure is fun to go up on the hill and watch them land and take off!
On Thursday I get to go biking around the gardens with my friend Jessica, then on Sunday I pack up and leave for Blacksburg! I have a feeling these next few weeks (months, even!) are going to be kicking into overdrive! So many fun things happen when the weather warms up, don't you think?!
I had fun too! It needs to happen again!!!!
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