The gardens are pretty new, but are actually the way the city cools it's runoff water before it joins local water sources. There is a series of something like 23 ponds to allow the water to cool and they have built the gardens around them. In my head I didn't take into account how new this place was (less than 10 years) so I was expecting some taller trees, but other than that I was very impressed by all the work and innovation here.
There are lots of small areas devoted to different things. Like a Children's Garden with whimsical creatures created out of all natural materials. There's even a little hobbit house (which you can see the round door in this picture).
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There's a sensory garden which included this fun water feature!
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There weren't actually a whole lot of flowers as it's more of a natural garden, rather than landscaped and manicured, but here is one of my favorites I posted before.
On the way home Grandma decided we should take the back roads through farm country... and we got stuck behind 5 giant harvesters (appropriately tagged 1-5). We followed them for something like 10 miles at about 20 miles an hour. You can see that they took up the entire road so there was no passing.
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Cory was in awe though so it was worth it!
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The entrance fees to the garden can be a bit steep for just a short visit, but I'd definitely say it's worth going to see!
![PhotoStory Friday](http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc50/whatworksforus/pfw.jpg)
Hosted by Cecily and Emily
What a great family outing! I love when places have activities for kids, too.
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