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 :

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.

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.

(missing video because youtube sucks)

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

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) :

Dancing Turtles!

What is it with Indy and spitting frogs?

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

I loved this engraved stone piece :

There was a wedding scheduled for that day :

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) :

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