Part 3 - Mendocino Trip, Botanical Gardens

The best part of our trip to Mendocino was the afternoon we spent at the Mendocino Botanical Gardens, which is located about 7 miles north of town up the 1. We actually almost didn't go. It was the last day of the trip and I was feeling lazy and tempted to hang around all day, but thanks to my mom and Husband (and my sister and her husband for buying the tickets!), we ended up going.

It started off pretty ho hum with some ordinary plants I had no interest in identifying. Then all of a sudden it got awesome. There were these cool scraggly trees. There's nothing I love more than scraggly trees on an overcast day. Sure, it's gloomy, but for some reason it makes me happy and pensive.

After the scraggly trees were some bluffs. Who doesn't like a nice ocean view in between garden viewing?









The real treat came when we got to the dahlia garden. There were Dahlia's everywhere, with a grassy lawn in the middle of them and a artistic wooden gazebo-like structure at the end of the row. Could you imagine getting married there? You wouldn't need a florist, that's for sure. Seriously, the Dahlia garden was so gorgeous I would have gone just to see it. There were all different kinds (who knew there were different kinds?) and the colors ranged everywhere from white to orange to purple. Plus, tt was a great opportunity to use the macro setting on my new camera!








And guess what else was cool about the gardens...it was dog friendly! You can take your dog into the gardens as long as you stay on the path and keep them on a 6' leash. No extra charge. Theo had a blast. He was always looking back and giving us a "hurry up!" look when we dawdled. He wanted to see what the gardens had to offer!

The happy look on Theo's face here is because he's have a roaring good laugh over the fact that mommy and daddy had to wipe some stray poop off his booty. Yuck! Lots of walking seems to make Theo have to poop when he doesn't really need to. The rest of my family gave us a "and that's why I don't have a dog" look. Lovely.






Another cool thing at the gardens that most of my family ended up skipping over was the vegetable garden. It was a ways off the main path, but when I saw the sign my mom and I decided we'd check it out. I wouldn't recommend bringing your dog into this area. It's, well, a vegetable garden! Lettuce, zucchini, and lots of other veggies (as well as fruits) grow in planter boxes only a few inches off the ground. Very easy access to a food-obsessed pup. But they do allow people tastings, so my mom and I had fun picking a blueberry and currant here and there. Man did they taste great right off the bush! I just love the way this picture came out.

Well that's the end of my Mendocino vacation. It was lots of fun but way too short. This was my first real vacation with Theo and I think it went really well! He was really well behaved for the most part (minus the incessant pulling on his leash!), and he really helped keep me out and about (something I don't do enough!).