Botanic Garden - Christmas and otherwise

I was planning on putting up two posts today, but baby wasn't very supportive of that idea.  Hopefully the other post will be up soon.


The United States Botanic Garden is a lovely place.  First up, the Garden at Christmas time and then the Garden the rest of the year.

If you are in DC during the holidays you should definitely check out the Botanic Gardens.  They go all out with a huge train display through a fantasy land and extravagant buildings where everything is made from natural materials.  But plan a bit ahead because there is a line to get in (it is free, though) and parking in the area is difficult.  Of course parking downtown is always difficult...

They had the buildings of the National Mall made from natural materials and laid out in the same orientation as the actual National Mall.  Pretty cool and REALLY impressive up close.

T and Pippa in front of the Supreme Court looking appropriately serious.

The Lincoln Memorial

There's even a little Lincoln inside made out of nuts!  

National Museum of the Native American

Seriously, the models of buildings at the Christmas Botanic Gardens are, to me, more art than most of the things in the Modern Art Museum.

The Capitol with a self photo.  Pro Tip:  Self Photos are pretty hard to do when baby is in a stroller.  Just ask someone to take the photo for you.

Or take two separate photos with the intent of photoshopping them together.

After taking the second photo realize that the shots are totally different and you won't be able to photoshop them together.

Finally just ask a nice looking stranger to take a photo of you.  Success!

Just a regular, giant, beautiful Christmas tree, that I think looks better than the National Christmas Tree. Check out the Charles Dickens Christmas Town buildings at the base of the tree!

In my dream life this how big my Christmas Tree would be every year.

We didn't take any photos in the train section because it was so crowded and trains aren't really my thing, but I'm pretty sure that all kids would love it.


At non-Christmas times, the Botanic Garden is exactly what you would expect.  And that's a good thing.  It is a fabulous place to visit in winter because it's warm and it is so colorful when the rest of the world is so grey.  But seriously, it gets hot in there - I had my coat off and felt like I was about to pass out.

There's a cool section where you can smell different flowers and try to guess the plant then you flip the lid to check your answer.

Of course no botanic garden would be complete without some orchids.

I'm not sure what kind of plant this is, but isn't this photo pretty amazing?!  The iPhone can take some pretty great photos!

If you visit in a non-winter season, the outdoor garden attached to the Botanic Garden is lovely and has a pretty fountain.  It's a pretty calm place despite being in the middle of a big city and the closest attraction to the Capitol.

This just made me laugh.  In the jungle section someone had thrown a dollar bill into the little stream.

You can walk across the "catwalks" in the jungle area which is pretty cool.

Basically, I don't know much about plants and flowers except that I like the pretty ones.  I would say if you're like me, the Botanic Gardens are fun to visit if you're in DC in winter but if you visit in the summer skip it - it's too hot inside and there's not a lot of shade in the outdoor garden so it will be hot there, too.  

Like most of the fabulous places on the National Mall, the Botanic Garden is free.