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Monday, August 5, 2013

Botanic Garden visit with Aubrey and Rita

Aubrey has really been enjoying taking photos of flowers with her new camera. What better place to go on Sunday than the South Coast Botanic Garden!

This post is only going to have the photos I took. I'll have another post showcasing all of Aubrey's photos.
As soon as we got through the gates, she started taking pictures of the first flowers she saw!

I've got a few photos of flowers from our last few visits. Today, I wanted to focus on all the little critters you happen to see while at the gardens.
Of course the bees love all these flowers.

Theresa saw this flowers and thought it was beautiful and possibly even wall worthy.

She's always a lover of trees and plants that actually produce something and don't just look pretty. These grape vines are producing grapes.

And this tomato plant is starting to produce fruit.

It wasn't just the regular bees out today. The bumblebees are also all over the place.

Catching a bumblebee flying. It's hard to see how they fly around with such a big body and small wings.


Not only do the bees love all these flowers, but butterflies are out in force as well.

The butterfly has a really long tongue to get to the flowers juices.

Aubrey getting in all the right positions to get the shot.

There is a 1 mile loop around the gardens that leads you through all sorts of different zones. Theresa came to the gardens expecting to hang out at the front section and look at the flowers there. Too bad she didn't tell me...

As we neared the fig trees, you could really smell the sweetness in the air. The trees have been dropping their fruit and it's been getting crushed by the trams as they drive by. I thought it was a pretty good smell.



There is a small pumpkin patch fenced off from the critters.

With small pumpkins growing on the outside. Again, something Theresa just loves.

The whole day, I've been trying to get a photo of the sulphur butterfly, but these guys just don't land! I joked that they don't even have feet because I never saw one sitting on a flower. Because they never stop, here's one as it's fluttering by.

Another photo request from Theresa.

The rose garden has really come into bloom since our last visit.

The roses are beautiful and the whole area smells wonderful.

Aubrey had a field day taking pictures of the roses.

One more critter. A hummingbird was flying around all the roses. I finally caught it when it was still.

A small moth.

Near the Japanese garden, a dragonfly was hanging out near the lily pads. Look at those crazy wings!

I like both of these photos of the dragonfly. The photo above really shows the wings clearly.  This one shows the feet and head in sharp focus.

We finished at the garden pretty late and had a late 2pm lunch. One of my favorite places nearby is a Pakistani place called Al-Noor.

It's got 4 stars with over 300 reviews on Yelp, so you know it's doing something right. It's also been featured on The Food Network on the show called The Best Thing I Ever Ate.

Here's the clip from the show. So, the best thing I ever ate here? Food Network says it's the garlic nan.

So of course we had to get an order. It's delicious of course, but not my favorite.

Everyone around the table agreed the plain nan was even better than the garlic nan! Still not the best thing I've ever eaten though.

This Chicken Tikka Masala is one of the most flavorful and tasty dishes I've tried in a long time! It's a curry dish which I've really started to develop a taste for. This is one of the Best Things I've Ever Eaten.

Even though it's a little cool here, we headed to the beach to relax. The girls were just a little cold.

Aubrey and I practiced some volleyball and kept warm by running around.

And then Aubrey enjoyed the portable hammock for a while.

After the beach, even though it was cold, we stopped at one of Rita's favorite places in California. Pinkberry! I'm surprised this was the only time we went here on this trip! It was a fun day overall! Only a couple days left for their trip! We'll see what else we can get it!

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