The Gladness of Glorious Gardens

My adventure this weekend was going to Thanksgiving Point on Sat.  I really had a wonderful time.  I've been saving up my first Thanksgiving Point visit since I've been here because I know that it is a big local attraction and I wanted to keep it as something to look forward to. When I learned about the tulip festival, it seemed like a perfect time to go.  One Saturday at the end of April was the big Dutch Days celebration featuring Dutch music and dancing, so I had planned to go then, but the weather was miserably cold and rainy, so I decided to put off the experience for a better day.

I'm glad that I did.  It was too bad to miss the extra festivities, but they would have certainly made it more crowded on a normal day and I found the relative peace and stillness to be one of the major attractions of the visit.  There were definitely others there, but I also often had locations all to myself.  Admission is fairly pricey typically ($15), so it's nice to have a more peaceful and pleasant experience.  I was lucky enough to get free tickets to go from Gerrit and Elisabeth, which I was very grateful for, since my original plan was to just go pay the door price.

The initial impression of these gardens from the visitor center is quite impressive.  You get a nice overview of the 55 acres of gardens, though most of the delights are hidden from plain view, so you still get the joy of meandering along to discover them.  At the visitor center you can also get golf cart, or more excitingly, segway rentals if you prefer not to walk.  The segway tour would be fun sometime just because it would be cool to ride one!  Though the tulip festival officially ended a couple weeks ago, there are still a stunning number of tulips around that can be seen.  Some of them were definitely past peak, but it was still cool to see all of them.  The sheer numbers of them were a major part of the impact!

There were a number of people starting along the path right as I was, but they just kind of strolled by the fabulous beds planted all alongside the path without really stopping.  Maybe they have been there before.  Since it was my first time, I found myself stopping all along the first stretch of path to take pictures and simply admire the gorgeous blossoms.  There were a lot of stunners, but it's fairly safe to say that the red and white striped ones were my favorite!  They were just so striking both at a distance and up close as well.  As tempting as it was to linger there, I figured I'd better do a little more than just hang out within the first couple hundred feet!

Once you got the the bottom of the hill, you come across a bridge over the stream that runs through the gardens.  While this isn't one of the show-stopper featured areas of the gardens with it's own fancy name or anything, I found this section to be probably my favorite spot in the whole place, though it was hard to choose favorites, of course.  I guess part of what I really liked about it was that it was a place that many would simply pass by since it wasn't a major destination, which made it reasonably quiet.  It was also a place that had a semblance of natural beauty, though of course everything there was meticulously cared for.  The flowers and shady trees right up next to the flowing stream created quite the idyllic scene.

A little farther down the stream, you hit the Monet garden,which had a nice bridge as well as some widening water that came ended in a small waterfall into the main lake area.  To the side of this lake, there was a cosy trellis area filled with nice benches that partially encircled the rose garden.  It was a pleasant place to stop awhile, and since the roses were cut back from the winter frost and wouldn't be blooming right now anyway, there weren't many people in that area.  Down the lake a little farther was the koi feeding area.  Koi are interesting creatures that I really do enjoy seeing from time to time.  I think I got my fill for quite awhile there, though!  Quite a few koi were milling around the dock when I first went over there, but it was nothing compared to the moment that some other people threw a handful of feed into the water.  There were so many koi having a feeding frenzy, it was ridiculous!  They were thrashing about everywhere in that little space of water for awhile.

Next I walked up to a sort of crossroads area that had a small glass art installation surrounded by a bunch of trees.  This area was FULL of songbirds.  They were twittering away at each other like crazy!  It was fun to hear them and to see many of them flitting around the trees too.  Along with the drab birds, there were quite a few goldfinches and I saw a couple of what I think were Western Tanagers.  They were my favorite to see flying around the gardens, but they weren't very friendly, most of the time, when I got anywhere close, they'd fly far off.  The goldfinches were much more cooperative subjects.  Really, I need a much better camera to do any of the birds justice.

It may seem weird, but I'm a pretty big fan of birds.  I like to watch them and hear them.  It doubtless started with my mom, who is pretty knowledgeable about birds and would often point them out on our many outdoor adventures.  I remember looking through her bird guide as a kid and trying to identify different birds I'd seen.  I also find birds to be one of the most inspiring types of creatures, not just for me personally, but for mankind as well, I think.  I feel like it was from birds that humans first received inspiration for such things as color, music, and of course, flight.  Birds still hold a lot of fascination for me, and I toyed with the idea of joining a local birdwatching association a number of times.  Unfortunately, most of my interests are only shared by much older people, and I'm confident that would be the case here as well!  Still, I haven't let that stop me in the past, and I'm definitely still pondering a trip down to BYU to meet with the local bird watching group.

Anyway, back to the gardens, I decided to stay on the side that I had been exploring and work my way back around.  This made the next stop the Fragrance Garden.  This was another lovely little tucked away gem.  My main issue with it was that it was right next to a fence dividing it from the golf course, where a number of golfers were moving around with their carts, which detracted a bit from the garden.  There were some nicely fragrant flowers there that made it an enjoyable place to visit still.

Next I moseyed over to the Italian Garden.  I had actually already seen it from a distance and thought it was a big set of steps.  While there were indeed steps, what I had mistaken for steps were actually large basins that created a long fountain of sorts.  It was a pretty enough area, but I found it less inspiring than I think it is meant to be.  Partly, the fact that the upper series of the fountain were not working at all was off-putting, but it was more the fact that it seemed to artificial for me.  Obviously artificial isn't always a bad thing, as pretty much everything else was artificial in the whole place, but there it felt too planned to be enjoyed.  That's probably just my own perception.

From there, I moved on to the Secret Garden.  This was another of my favorite places, definitely vying for a place at the very top.  This little sunken garden was an enclosed area filled with tons of flowers as well as some sitting areas branching out from a lovely little fountain.  It was a secluded area that was unfortunately kind of spoiled by too many people.  I put it on my list of places to go back and revisit.

Right outside the Secret Garden was the Butterfly Garden, which I wasn't all that impressed with, honestly, as well as a beautiful pathway that lead up toward Vista Mound.  I loved the setting there.  It was quiet again, because it was a lesser-used area not exactly intended for stopping and had a cultivated yet unpretentious feel to it.  I don't know what it is, but red tulips are pretty much always enthralling to me, and there were a lot of them through there.

I decided to check out Vista Mount at that point.  It seemed less exciting than some of the other spots, and it really was in reality.  At the top, there weren't all that many flowers, just the four columns that I guess were meant to represent a ruin or something.  Interestingly, two of the pillars had Bible verses on them, one describing the Garden of Eden from Genesis and the other was something about the creation from Isaiah.  I felt like the climb up there was made more worth it thanks to the scriptures.  It was also validated by the nice view of the little lane I just described from above.  It was nice to get a new perspective on that area.

When I descended from the mound, I started heading over to the last few places to see.  One of them, the Parterre Garden was disappointingly closed.  There was a ton of plastic draped over something in the middle, which I later found out, thanks to Google, is a sort of floral carousel.  They must be doing some work there, so I can understand why it was blocked off, but they also closed you out from what I could see were some nice flower beds surrounding it.  Oh well, I guess it will just give me something to look forward to later!

My last stop was the most famous section, which I have actually seen in pictures before.  It was the Mountain Garden, where all the man-made waterfalls are.  What I hadn't realized is that there is a big amphitheater in front of the falls, where they obviously do concerts or something of that nature.  I imagine going to a concert with that beautiful background would be quite cool, but unfortunately the big concrete stage does somewhat detract from the beauty of the place at normal times!  Still, it was an impressive sight.

Pictures didn't do justice to the massive scale of the thing.  You can also walk around the top of the falls, and that path was very enjoyable.  There were even parts that I could almost forget that I was walking along a man-made object rather than on a mountain.  It was also fun to see the falls from the top.  Perhaps my favorite element of that section was the fact that they had some stunning red and green Japanese Maples planted next to each other up there.  The Japanese Maple is probably my all time favorite tree, so it was nice to get to see some nice examples up there.

Having toured all the available sights, I decided it was time to find a place to stay still for awhile.  I was pretty tired after all that walking, plus I'd taken close to 300 pictures, so I'd been on my feet for a long time!  My first resort was The Secret Garden.  When I first got there, it was quite nice.  Only a couple people were lingering, but soon dispersed, leaving me free to enjoy the place all to myself.  This was capital, and I was throughly enjoying the atmosphere interspersed with a book for a few minutes.  Unfortunately, soon another sizable group of people soon came in to disturb the peace.  It seemed quite jarring to have all these talkative people there, including a number of raucous children, going about their business.  In fact, I'm pretty sure that one of them took a picture of me for unknown reasons!  I don't really begrudge them all being there, since it was a nice spot they paid to enjoy same as anyone, but I decided that I'd rather find a quieter location and left.

I made up my mind to go back to the first patch by the stream I'd found, but on my way back I found some other family there posing pictures and decided to sack out under a tree a little ways off, but still in view to wait until they left.  I read my book in that spot for about 5 minutes before going to claim my intended destination after the family left.

It was entirely delicious when I finally settled myself down where I wanted to be.  The grass was cool and soft, inviting me to stay and enjoy.  There was a pleasant breeze blowing which added to the soundtrack laid down by the gurgling creek and the warbling birds.  I was tempted to just take a little nap in this perfect setting, but I went back to my book instead.  It was so pleasant to just read in the grass for a couple hours.

It's funny how these sorts of little delights can make any and all care simply melt away.  In that moment, it was easy to understand the sheer beauty of life.  Perhaps it was the connection to all the variety of life teaming around me, all I know is that it made me feel perfectly content and aware of the life surging in myself.  The world truly is a marvelously good place, and the evil that sometimes happens in it can't diminish the overwhelming glory of creation.  I don't really wonder that so many people, estranged from the fullness of the gospel, are drawn to the spiritual quality of nature.  It is a powerful manifestation of God's power and love.  The sad thing is that so many don't understand how that feeling is enhanced and put into truer perspective by a knowledge of who God really is and how He conducts His work among His children.

Really, I had a marvelous time.  I was quite reluctant to leave, but eventually I did have other things I needed to get done.  I hope I will get to return to the gardens before too long, and I look forward to discovering some of the other attractions offered by Thanksgiving Point, though I think I've already covered the best part!