Roses, Butterflies and Colored Glass

I enjoyed my first adventure in “retirement” with my girlfriend, on our 28^th annual get away. We began our outings together when our boys were young, in 1989. This year I flew to Indiana where she lives and we started our road trip to Columbus, Ohio. The criteria we use to choose our trip locations are: it must have gardens, a body of water, and antiques/thrift stores.

In Columbus our first stop was the Park of Roses, one of the largest public rose gardens in the United States.

We were fortunate to be there when the 11,000+ roses were in bloom. It was so pretty. We strolled along and enjoyed smelling the roses and reading the creative names for all the different varieties and colors. We tried hard to capture the beauty on our iPhones. You can’t capture the fragrance.

We checked out many antique stores and thrift shops in-between our park visits – another activity we really enjoy doing together – and we each found a couple of treasures to bring home.

Another park we visited was the Franklin Park Conservatory which offered many fun surprises…from Chihuly glass displays interspersed in the plants, to animal- shaped topiaries, to the butterfly garden which releases many beautiful butterflies daily. They were flitting all around us.

We both are fans of colored glass and to see this display of Chihuly’s beautiful glass artwork was special. We didn’t know it was on exhibit at the conservatory when we planned our visit.

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We also enjoyed time sitting near the Scioto River, walking down the cobbled streets of the German Village and dining at good eating establishments.

We had a delightful time.