Wow!!!! What an amazing time we had at the Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. It was beautiful. They have so many different species of all type of plants, from Rain Forest vegetation to Desert cactus. These two massive exhibits in the Conservatory happened to be indoor, so on this rainy day, it was great. In addition, there was a amazing glass art exhibit by Dale Chihuly, intertwined throughout the park. Wow Wow Wow. We will let the pictures explain. See their website www.nybg.org for other exhibits and educational programs throughout the year. They even offer flower arranging classes!
The NYBG is open all year round, so if you are suffering from cabin fever or Seasonal Affective Disorder (like we do) this is the place to go. We will definitely be going back this coming spring! It is approximately 250 acres, and taking the accessible tram for a tour around the park is highly recommended. This was a hidden gem, and far exceeded our expectations. We have all lived in CT our entire lives, and surprisingly had never been.
So we had an amazing time, but what made it so special was the impressive accessibility throughout all parts of the park. Harold noted that this was the second most accessible place he had ever been, only behind Disney World. The only notable improvement that could be made would be to ensure that all major entry ways have automatic door openers. The people that work at NYBG were all extremely helpful and willing to hold the door. We were able to find handicapped parking easily, and we notices that they have free wheelchairs available at the ticket booth on a first come first basis.
We would have to say that one of the highlights of our day was meeting some extraordinary people. A group of three very friendly ladies (The Golden Girls), who were traveling together, struck up a conversation with us. We started to share about our website (after, of course, they mentioned how handsome Harold is. If only we had a dollar for every time we heard that!), and we unfortunately didn’t have our business cards. So we told them what the website was, but they were afraid they would not remember. Steve suggested that they each take a word, so Rose got “The“, Lisa got “Thoughtful“, and Diane was tasked with “Travelers“. What made this really funny, was as we randomly crossed paths with them later in the day, we could hear Lisa saying “Thoughtful” out load, followed by Rose with “The” and it just made us laugh. It must have worked, because they left us a comment on our Facebook page. Thanks ladies for brightening our day!! His step dad is pretty handsome too, know??
Next we met Libby, who was from Virginia, and visiting NYC. She was really impressed by the accessibility of NYC. She actually said she wanted to move to NYC and “that with Siri, in NYC I could get anywhere.” Libby told us that you can get an accessible cab, Uber or Bus pretty easily in the city. She also was styling in her cheetah print poncho.
Tracey was the last person we met but not soon to be forgotten. She rolled out of the gift shop, bags in tow hanging off her scooter, and Susan said, “isn’t this the most accessible place you have ever been to?” She agreed and told us she was going to mention it on her website (www.Abilatools.com). We loved her sense of humor as she described her disability and the disability community. She had us laughing hysterically.
In summary, it exceeded our expectations in all ways, from the beauty of so many examples of God’s creation, to the miles of smooth and maintained accessible pathways. You can take your young children to your great grandmother and everyone will have a wonderful time!
A Weekend in Greenville, South Carolina
Looks like fun!