alice in the garden

As a child (as we've discussed before), I was obsessed with Alice in Wonderland.  I also had a very active imagination.  I would play in my backyard on summer days, climbing through trees, bushes, etc...pretending to be Alice in the garden.  She was small and the flowers were giant and they talked.  This was a fantasy I couldn't help but re-create. 
Yesterday I got to feel, just a little, how Alice might have felt when I went to the tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point.  I don't know what exactly I was expecting but it certainly exceeded every expectation I might have had.  And of course in true Vanessa fashion I took lot's of pictures...

  (one of my favorites)

 

water fountain in the Italian garden

you can see the statue at the very top

all the way down to the very bottom

the largest man-made water feature in the world

the large slab of concrete in the grass is a stage and they put on concerts here...how amazing would that be?

if you look closely you can see a Canadian goose who was hatching her babies

the view from behind the waterfall

when you first enter- this is the view of the entire garden

It's really too bad I never went to anything like this when I was a kid.  I could have had a lot of adventures here.