Anniversary Trip Was Not A Cruise But It Was Still Good

We had planned to do a cruise for our 25th wedding anniversary yesterday but Covid kinda put the kibosh on that.

Instead we exchanged anniversary cards ion the morning and had breakfast and then we headed out on a drive to Elmore, Ohio. 

Why Elmore?  Because their Schedel Gardens and Arboretum is open to the public while Ann Arbor's botanical gardens are still closed - yes open air gardens are closed still due to Covid.   Covidiotic.

So we headed to Elmore, which is a rather quintessential American small town.  Strangers actually cheerfully say hi to you when you're walking down the street. We stopped for lunch at the Village Inn which was delightful.   While service was slow, as everywhere is these days as help is hard to find, the food was worth the wait.  I had the Buffalo Chicken Chink -0 basically chunks of lightly breaded fried chicken in a buffalo sauce which was great, and Tash had the Greek salad.  We also tried a Birch Beer which was rather tasty and sort of a wintergreen root beer in flavor.  Good stuff.

Then we went to the Schedel Gardens and Arboretum.

To say its picturesque is an understatement.  Multiple themed gardens and really a beautiful place.

The Japanese themed garden was very serene, peaceful, and beautiful.

They have a large selection of Bonsai trees including this one Ponderosa Pine dating back to 1941 that is still going strong.

They also have a species of redwood tree, the Dawn Redwood that were thought to be extinct until rediscovered some valleys in China during the Second World War. 

 

Lots of things to see, though the peonies have yet to fully bloom and their vegetable and flower gardens are just starting to grow.  It was a very nice time.

After that we headed home, narrowly missing getting into a car wreck as a fellow made a left turn right into a car approaching straight down the road at high speed. Both had a green light but the left turn definitely lacked the right of way.  massive bang sound and just missed us.  Not fun.  Both cars had airbags deployed but they seemed ok and a sheriff's car was right there. 

We got home safely, rested and changed and then headed out to a nice restaurant, It's a Matter of Taste on Union Lake for dinner on their Patio.  Excellent food, service, and atmosphere.

It made for a very nice anniversary day indeed.

Singapore - The Botanical Gardens

Singapore is often called the Garden City, so of course we had to visit the botanical gardens.

The gardens from the outside look like two large domes, with posts that look like large trees in a large courtyard in front of them.

As you enter the gardens after paying the entry fee, you see a waterfall with two walkways that circle the perimeter of the entire building letting you look down upon the natural beauty before you.

Flowers are all around you as you stroll through the gardens.

There are multiple levels to the gardens, including a lower level forming a cave complete with stalagmites and stalactites.

Ascending the highest walkway around the inside of the dome, to the cloud forest, we looked down through the mist left by the waterfalls.

The large posts outside in the shape of trees are lit up at night.

Each night there's a musical show with the trees all pulsing different colors.

As we visited during the National Day celebrations, the songs were distinctly patriotic and stressed the unity of Singapore's people and that Singapore was their home.

Yes, they were really pushing the "One Nation Singapore" theme.

The gardens are a really beautiful spot to see in Singapore, with an amazing variety of flowers and plants from the tropics and elsewhere, and the night show with all of the posts pulsating in time to the music was really neat to watch and the gardens are well worth visiting and enjoying.