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| See the turtle? |
When we visit, we often stop first at the little pond beside the front entrance to check out the turtles sunning themselves on lily pads or swimming in the water. Next, we head across the courtyard to the Café for some sustenance (this time we spent about $7 total for two bottles of water, one bottle of Topo Chico, and two Capri Suns) before heading straight for the Luci and Ian Family Garden. There’s a stroller- and wheelchair-friendly route to get there, but the main route involves a few stairs and a long, winding sidewalk path, plus a bridge that the kids like to run and jump along — and of course lots of wildflowers to stop and inspect along the way. You’ll also pass a field with cool, realistic, life-sized metal coyote and rabbit sculptures that my kids love playing with (or, more accurately, on). There’s even a workout station on the far side of the field, with ellipticals, pull-up bars and other ways to burn some calories if you’re in the mood.
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| The Luci and Ian Family Garden |
But if you keep following the path, you’ll find yourself in the Family Garden. There are so many cool things about this place — including large family restrooms (whew! necessary after all those refreshments) and a large pavilion that’s shady and breezy (nice for sitting a spell when you get hot) — but the part of the Family Garden that my kids love the most, every time, is the water pump and stream.
The water pump is an old iron one that looks like it should be out on a pioneer farm. You can swing the arm to pump water into these big metal basins, and my kids love using the plastic watering buckets there to transfer water back and forth between the basins, or water the plants nearby, or sprinkle water over the interesting hole-filled rocks and watch it trickle down into the running water of the stream below. There’s a cave and waterfall feature, too. There are even drawings on the cave walls! (Okay, they’re actually cool mosaics.) And once you’re inside the cave, you can stand inside the waterfall and look out.
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| The water pump — their favorite thing |
There’s also a shrubbery maze to walk through, which has metal butterfly benches to sit on (these make for great photo ops, but be careful — they get pretty hot in the sun), and giant birds’ nests for kids to check out, and tree stumps for climbing, and a whole lot more.
Another Wildflower Center favorite of ours is the cylindrical Observation Tower. Situated near the Cafe, it’s got a series of steps that lead up first to a landing and then all the way up to the very top of the tower. At the top, you can see for miles around, as well as much of the Wildflower Center gardens and acreage.
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| Zeph rides a jackrabbit! |
The Wildflower Center has several upcoming summer events, including Nature Nights — starting June 7, 2018, every Thursday evening from 6 – 9 PM, you can visit the Wildflower Center for “fun explorations of plants, animals and the ecology of Central Texas.” (Visits to the Center during the day of each Nature Night are also FREE! Kids can enjoy interactive presentations, hikes, and nature crafting at Nature Nights, and children 12 and under receive a free gift from the Gift Store.
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| Cave drawings (okay, mosaics) |
Admission fees to the Wildflower Center:
- $10 for adults (age 18+)
- $8 for students with a
college ID and seniors age 65+ - $4 for kids ages 5–17
- FREE for children under
five
Hours: 9 AM – 5 PM daily, open until 8PM on Tuesday
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| Pearl finds the butterfly chair a bit hot |
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| Beautiful waterfall |
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| Looking out through waterfall from inside the cave |
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| Have Capri Sun, will travel (to the family garden!) |
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| Zephyr loves the water pump! |
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| Pearl rides a coyote! |
About the author: Catherine Avril Morris is a romance novelist, freelance writer, mom and wife living in southwest Austin, Texas. Check her out on the Web at www.CatherineAvrilMorris.com.
