For the third day of our free-or-cheap-daytrip adventure week, we headed to Wheaton Regional Park, which has lots of fun things to do and see. First of all, it's home to Brookside Gardens, a gorgeous 50-acre public display. It's totally free to walk the gardens, so we explored what they had to offer...besides this cool froggy statue in the Welcome Center.
There was a fun children's garden with a treehouse, a "gnome home", and other fun things for little folks.
Noah's favorite thing, though, was all the fountains.
When he saw this one, he ran full speed ahead and got himself up on the edge like this so he could splash his hand in the water.
Mama's favorite part was the gorgeous rose garden that was in full bloom.
I love how this one has different colored blooms on the same bush. The name of this particular rose is 'Rio Samba'. Samba! That has to be a sign that I need one of these, right?
A close second favorite for all of us was the "Wings of Fancy" butterfly exhibit. This part wasn't free, except for children 2 and under, which included Noah. Hubby and I had to pay $6 a piece, but it was worth it, especially since the rest of the gardens were free!
They had a neat little hands-on station for kids where they could touch and feel, look through magnifying glasses, and learn about the butterfly's life cycle.
Noah thought they were all like the Very Hungry Caterpillar. :)
When we finished at the gardens, we headed to a different part of Wheaton Regional Park that was by far Noah's favorite. We didn't tell him what we were going to do there, just promised "a special secret surprise."
First of all, they have a carousel, which he loves.
...and the best part is this really really cool miniature train! You get to ride it for 15 minutes on a track that goes all over the park, through the woods, over a bridge, and through a tunnel. It also has a great whistle, just like good old Thomas the Tank Engine. Noah got really excited about riding it and grinned from ear to ear. He thought it was James, since it was red.
Noah rode for free, and adult tickets cost $1.75 a piece, which I thought was a small price to pay for the look on his face.
Hope your day was full of fun like ours was! Meanwhile, I thought vacation was supposed to be nice and relaxing...let me tell ya, I'm exhausted! I could fall asleep right here and now....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
You're hitting up all our favorite spots this week! I love it (and look forward to going ourselves sometime this summer!)
ReplyDeleteAnother great day. So glad the weather is holding out for you and that Noah is enjoying all of these cool places. I want to go too, if only I knew where Wheaton was. :)
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