A visit to Fairchild Tropical Gardens

Yesterday was my sister's birthday and her, my mom and I went to Fairchild Tropical Gardens in Miami. I had never been before and had always heard good things but I was reluctant because it's $25 to get in. But because it was my sister's birthday it was a good reason to go AND for an $5 I got a student membership which means I can go back for free anytime for a year! Plus a whole lot of other bonuses so it was definitely worth getting that.

It was a pretty awesome place and I took a lot of pictures so I'll just show a few here. When we got there it was about noon so we went to the cafe to eat lunch. The menu was sandwiches and salads that they make there and also different kinds of sodas that they also make there. I got a turkey sandwich with cucumbers and dill harvati and a tangerine soda!

One really nice thing that they offer there is a free tram tour and also they have volunteers with golf carts who will drive you to where you want to go. When we first got there we got a ride to the cafe and then since the tram starts ever hour we walked around a bit to explore on own own before catching the next tram. We walked through the two atriums where they had some artwork by Dale Chihuly.

Natan and I once saw a show on PBS about Chihuly and showed his work room, it was really intense and super hypnotizing to watch all the glass blowing. I was checking out his website and it's strange because they show all these different pieces that were not at the gardens but they also don't show the pieces that are there now so maybe it's just an old website. I really wish some of the pieces on the website were there though, I like the crystals and the sun the best.




I knew that my mom and sister would really like it there because they both love to garden and walking around the place really gives you a lot of good ideas. For instance to put bromalinds onto old birds of paradise.


It was such a nice day out yesterday and it felt so good to be outside and around so many plants. I think my favortie area was the arboretum because I really loves trees.



I also liked the rainforest are because it reminded me of being in Amazon in Ecuador and in January they are giving a talk about Ecuador for the plant lover so I will definitely be going to that.


Aside from Chihuly they have some other art installations there and I really like how they incorporate the pieces into the gardens. For example this dinosaur will eventually be covered with plants and spit out water into a small pond.

And while this piecee may not intertined with the gardens I liked that it was interactive and I could resist climbing in!

My other, other favorite (it's hard to chose favorites!) was the spiny forest from Madagascar.



They have a lot of events at Fairchild which is another reason I'm glad I became a member, in January they have a chocolate festival! Yesterday they had the Fairchild challenge which was for middle schoolers and high schoolers to make clothing and accessories out of plants and flowers. We watched part of the show and it was pretty neat, some of the kids did a really good job. What we saw was the middle schoolers but as we were leaving I saw some of the high schoolers waiting around in their outfits and they looked really awesome. I couldn't really get any pictures of the show because we were far back but here is a shot of the audience and you can pick out some people in plant clothing, I think they must have been some of the first to show their clothing.


I really liked it there and I can't wait to go back, not just for events but just to go and hang out and wander around and maybe read a book. It's a really relaxing place and I even saw people picnicking by the lakes! For anyone who is interested the first Wednesday of every month is free day! I will definitely be dragging some people along and hopefully convincing some to buy student memberships so I have people to come with me for events!