Descanso Gardens

One of my favorites places to go when I was a kid was Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge.  The gardens are really beautiful and there is so much to explore.  I went back with Delaney during my maternity leave, but Delaney was just a newborn and slept through the whole trip.   I’ve been really excited to take her since she started walking and finally got the chance on Friday when I took the day off of work.   It was just the two of us and we really had so much fun together. 

 Delaney loved all of the benches throughout the gardens and succeeded in climbing onto many of them. 

We found a quiet bench off the path to eat our picnic lunch. 

 Delaney looked really small among the beautiful oak trees.

 Hat is a little big, but one of "the rules" that we "discussed" before going to the gardens was that she had to wear her hat since it was a hot and sunny day. 

 Delaney loved the Japanese Tea House and Gardens.

 In addition to the trees and flowers, we saw birds, squirrels, butterflies, dragonflies, frogs and ducks, but Delaney's favorite part was the koi fish.  She was fascinated by them. 

 There was a puppet show but it made her a little nervous.  This was as close as she was willing to sit but watched happily from here. 

 She saw a lot of ducks from the Bird Observation Station. 

We had so much fun, I ended up buying a year membership so that we can go often.  They have jazz concerts on Thursday evenings and kids concerts on Tuesday evenings during the summer where you bring a picnic.  We are going to try make it to at least a few. 

It is really special for me to share these fond memories from my childhood with her.