Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Trains, Flowers, and More Trains

I think we have a new family Christmas tradition! My friend Kelly took her son to the US Botanic Gardens a couple of weeks ago, and she wrote about it on her blog. After reading about it, I knew Jackson would love to go! (Thanks Kelly for always finding the cool stuff for Jackson and me!) So we headed downtown for an official Train Day!

The US Botanic Garden has a train display made up of plant-based natural materials. The trains weave their way through all sorts of enchanted storybook gardens. It is simply beautiful and magical.


Jackson loved this little caterpillar train.


We kept looking for the elves at the elf quarters, but could never spot one. Can you?


There is also an exhibit of all the National Mall landmarks including the latest Museum of the American Indian. As with the train display, all the landmarks are made of dried bark, seeds, leaves, etc. It was amazing!

I think my favorite was the Capitol, but Mark's was of course the White House.


The Supreme Court


We also saw one of DC's largest indoor Christmas trees. I thought this would be a great spot for our Christmas card picture. Hmmm . . . Jackson had other plans. (As you will see when you get our card, I ran out of time trying to take the "perfect" Christmas picture and had to settle for an old photo.)

Just so you can see that I really did try. (Ahh, look at the pretty tree, and Jackson was even dressed cute . . . maybe next year!)


We then packed up and headed over to Union Station. They also have a train display this time of year. It wasn't quite as beautiful as the gardens, but Jackson still enjoyed it.


However, Mark did sneak Jackson back to see the real trains. Now that was cool! We all had a great time, but obviously Jackson had the most fun . . .

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! There are so many neat things to do there. I would have loved the Botanical gardens. I made all the guys go that year when they were young, but it wasn't as much fun as at Christmas! Maybe someday Jackson will cooperate for a Christmas card from there. Love, Emmy

Derek said...

clearly, the supreme court is the best building there.