Part Two, In Which the Reader is Astounded by the Natural Wonders on Which I Expound

We decided that since Nathan will be starting grad school in the fall, and it's therefore unlikely that we'll get to take another vacation-type trip for quite a while, to live it up a little while in the Metroplex this weekend, and stayed on Sunday to pack in a few more fun events.

After sleeping in, we went to Panera for breakfast -- I was really wanting to go again after Evan and Allison brought in drinks from their breakfast on Saturday morning. It was every bit as wonderful as I'd remembered; I had a Cheese Pastry, Blueberry Muffin, and Caramel Latte, and sat comfortably and read a few chapters of my Agatha Christie as we ate. Then it was off to the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens, which I haven't visited since I was 11 or 12, probably. I didn't remember it being as beautiful as it was -- I was absolutely blown away. The Japanese Gardens were incredible, and the Rose Garden and the little garden trails we discovered were wonderful. My pictures are gorgeous, but they can't convey how absolutely magical it was.

First, some photos of the Japanese Garden:

One of me and Nate:

And then we wandered over into the Rose Gardens:

And from there, through some trails through the trees, where I dipped my toes in a little brook, and my husband laughed very hard at my funny faces for several minutes.

After three hours there, we hadn't seen even half of the Gardens, and I'm determined that we shall return to explore further, and hopefully spend whole days on the shady lawns with mystery novels and a picnic basket.