Father's Day at the CBG

We had big plans for the Saturday of Father's Day weekend but the forecast said rain and rain and more rain so we shelved those plans for a later date. Turns out that Saturday was beautiful. Go figure. Well, we wanted to make the most of Sunday so Doug had a great idea to go up to the Chicago Botanic Gardens.

It was awesome. Doug got a map and noticed Train Garden and asked one of the guides what it was about and we decided we would check it out. The train garden has been there for 12 years and despite how often we get to the gardens, we've never been there. IT WAS AWESOME!

The whole area is really amazing - there are trains traveling though the entire garden area and the larger area is divided up and set-up to emulate different areas of the United States through which these trains travel. It was really cool. You first walk into the Pacific North West complete with Mount St. Helen's - which actually erupts. Then you go through San Fransisco, St. Louis, the Southwest, Texas, through Illinois, and all the way to the East Coast.

James was in an almost trance like state when we first got in there. It was just complete awe and amazement. Trains everywhere. The guys running it were Grandpa-types and were all wearing blue-stripped conductor's hats. They were just as excited about the trains as the little guys were. Our final stop in the train garden was at Wrigley Field and it was really cute because James had a Cubs shirt on that day. He loved it because there was a recording that played, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." He loves the "and it's 1, 2, 3, strikes you're out" part and of course when we say "root, root, root for the CUBBIES!"

Ha! :)

After the trains, we walked through the Bonsai garden and then to the Rose garden and here, James stuck gold once more. There was a huge fountain at the end of the garden and James was locked in. I'm not sure how much time we spent here but James was just having a ball.

We had such a wonderful day and we were so excited to show Dad how lucky we feel to have him in our lives.