Descanso Gardens

We spent the day at Descanso Gardens with a few friends. We met up around 10ish and left around 1:30. The weather was perfect, sunny with a slight breeze. It definitely helped that majority of the garden is heavily shaded. We had a great time exploring the garden and enjoying each other's company. We were only able to visit a small section of the garden before the kids (and the adults too) got tired and decided to head home, but it was fun nevertheless.

One of my favorite area of the garden was the Japanese Tea Garden. It contains a maze of paths and steps that eventually leads up to a temple surrounded by koi ponds. Very tranquile. The kids loved to run up and down the paths constantly interupting my tranquility and causing me great distress from the thought that they might slip and fall into the koi ponds below.

That's Aria and Dalia actually enjoying each other's company. They've know each other for almost 2 years but I can't say that they're the best of friends.

This is a group picture of all the kids. From left to right: Joshua, Dalia, and Aria. Take note of that huge pumpkin behind Aria. All the kids wanted to touch it and take it home.

There were koi ponds situated throughtout the garden. The last koi pond that we stopped at was magnificent. The water was super clear and we could see all the water creatures swimming in the pond. There were two waterfalls in the background and lily pads and all sorts of water plants were thriving in the pond. It was amazing to see turtles and koi fishes co-habitating in the same pond. I would have thought the turtles would have eaten up all the koi fishes. Hmm....

Here's Aria being a thrill seeker by getting a close look at the enormous koi fishes. Thank god she did not slip in.

This turtle was trying to climb out but failed.