Friday, May 30, 2025

Day Four - Longwood Gardens

 Day Four - Delaware

We all slept in a little. I didn't even go down for breakfast - I asked Mark to bring up a bagel. He brought an English Muffin which was just fine! I stayed in the room and showered and packed. We had a full day planned but we had to check out at 11:00 and move our things to Susie and Bob's suite.

We headed to Longwood Gardens and if you are ever in Delaware, I highly recommend you visit -- just FYI, the garden is actually in Pennsylvania, not Delaware! These gardens are known as the best gardens in the US and one of the best gardens in the world. The gardens encompass 1100 acres and were originally bought by a Dupont to save some trees!

We were fascinated by the treehouses -- yes, six grown adults were fascinated by the tree houses.


Everything was beautiful.


The twin brothers and their wives (Alice and me!)


The flowers were spectacular. Someone told me that if a leaf falls off, someone swoops in to clean it up and replant if necessary!



Below is the Italian Water Garden - it was soooo lovely!


Treehouse #2 -- I think it looks like a bird - beak in the front, wings on each side, tail in the back. Can you see it?


Treehouse #3 - there were a lot of school children taking a tour and this was as close was we dared go!


The next two photos are known as the "potty wall." The walls on either side of this hallway are living walls filled with thousands of plants . . .and each of those doors is a potty!



The beauty of the conservatory took my breath away. I couldn't look at everything fast enough.


You might not be able to tell in this tiny photo, but each of those tall leaves is bigger than a normal size human.


We were able to catch the fountain show.
I forgot to tell you that we awakened to a very cool and windy day. I didn't pack a jacket. Just saying.


One of our favorite parts was the Ornamental Kitchen Garden. They've been growing veggies here since the 1920's. The crops are divided between the restaurants on the property, the employees, and a food bank. The trellises were cleverly designed to not only be functional, but to be beautiful, too.


Look at that tiny purple cauliflower. As we were walking around, we realized that the Delaware/Pennsylvania area was at least 4 weeks behind Alabama in the season - maybe closer to 8 weeks. Things were blooming in the gardens that bloomed here weeks ago.




I actually snapped a quick photo of the falls below when we were a tad lost - not really, but I did finally ask someone for directions to the parking lot. Mark and I were going back to the hotel to freshen up and head to the airport for our 7:00 flight to Bham. We wanted to leave in plenty of time to drive on I95, turn in the rental car, and make sure our flight was good to go . . . just in case we had to make alternative arrangements (remember the flight cancellations at the beginning of our trip?).


These are out of order -- here we all are up in the tree house!


Here we are on one of the paths.


Here is Susie with a dragon in the treehouse!


Here we are at the bird tree house.


Here is George touching the goat sculpture that he wasn't supposed to touch!


We made it to the airport and turned in the rental car and our flight was on-time. We landed in Birmingham a little before 9:00 p.m. and headed to the parking deck for our car. We were home and almost in bed by 10:00 . . .because I had to be at work the next morning.
What a fun and full four day weekend!







3 comments:

  1. What a delightful recap! I felt like I was walking through Longwood Gardens with you. The tree houses, the Italian Water Garden, and the living “potty wall” made me smile.

    Your storytelling brought the beauty and fun to life especially George and the goat sculpture! Thanks for sharing your lovely adventure.

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  2. Wow, that looks like a really cool place!!

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  3. When we lived in Mississippi, we had Nubian goats just like those sculptures.

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