Sunday, October 07, 2007

2007 Anniversary Trip : White River Gardens

You know how most arboretums are rather boring science displays with a bunch of plants and tags/displays showing you what plant is what? Well they had that too but the way they added and mixed in art to their plants was really cool.


I thought they could have done a better job of disguising the HVAC, but I digress. The entryway :


DSC02025.jpg picture by JRock3x8


This next picture is an example of mixing art with vegetation to make a really great presentation. It's a Japanese themed garden. But without the Red and Black Archway dominating the exhibit, you really don't get the mood of it quite right.


DSC02029.jpg picture by JRock3x8


They also had a neat little waterfall exhibit where they ran water into a pipe on a see saw and then when the water filled up, it would tip over and dump out and then reset itself. Simple, but interesting.


DSC02031.jpg picture by JRock3x8



Another example : this is really nothing more than a bush encircling a flower bed but look at what they did with it :


DSC02038.jpg picture by JRock3x8


They put a model train through one of their exhibits, but I couldn't quite figure out how you would make that work when it rained or got dirty (this was outdoors) :


DSC02042.jpg picture by JRock3x8


Dancing Turtles!


DSC02046.jpg picture by JRock3x8


What is it with Indy and spitting frogs?


An almost identical setup is in one of the entrances to the downtown mall.


DSC02047.jpg picture by JRock3x8


I loved this engraved stone piece :


DSC02050.jpg picture by JRock3x8


There was a wedding scheduled for that day :


DSC02052.jpg picture by JRock3x8


Come to think of it, we ran across about 4 weddings that day. Which we were very cool with, celebrating our anniversary and all. Julie and I congratulated one of the couples outside the IMAX Museum entrance, and Julie was especially careful to make a fuss about her hair. I am told that hair is a very big thing on your wedding day. I wouldn't know - I just kept spraying it until it stayed down.


Lilly pond (far better than the one outside our room) :


DSC02054.jpg picture by JRock3x8


Overall, I was extremely impressed with both the Zoo and the Gardens and would recommend it highly to anyone visiting Indianapolis.

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