Field Trip, Part 2

 Here it is, Sunday afternoon already. Time to get back to sharing the second part of our run away day last Thrusday.

After leaving the Arboretum, we drove east, across Lake Washington on the Evergreen Point Bridge. Since it was after noon, I used Google Maps to locate a nearby Starbucks for a lunch stop once we reached the Bellevue/Kirkland side of the Lake. While it was a bit out of the way, I found one right on the lake shore and said "let's go there!"

It turned out to be Carillon Point, where we got coffees and a cheese, fruit, and cracker pack to share along with the protein bars I brought from home. We found a bench with a view in the sun.

We sat right under the carillons as they chimed and then rang out 1:00.

And then good old Google Maps took us right to the Bellevue Botanical Garden. 

Blue sky and golden Witch Hazel. 

The perfume of Daphne Odora greeted us near the entrance.

Lots more beautiful Hellebores in bloom. 

Clumps of early daffodils. 

And more to come a bit later. 

The Border Garden is a delight most of the year. In early spring there is some color and mostly there is promise of more things to come. 

What are these big fat green buds emerging from the soil?

Ah, yes. May Apple!

Nice contrast of black Mondo grass and yellow Hellebore. 

More benches for resting and just enjoying sitting in a garden in the sun. 

Fat red peony stalks popping up behind the daffs. 

Moving on into the shade of the rhododendron garden.....

for a brief glimpse of the Yao Garden. 

and to the native garden, where we found Indian Plum in bloom, 

and skunk cabbage in the bog. 

Then back up the hill, across the stone bridge, past the tea house,

and back to the car.

It was 4:00 when we got home and settled in. We were having computer problems, with what turned out to be a battle between Microsoft and Google, not letting us open Google Chrome. After struggling unsuccessfully with that, I announced that I was not cooking dinner.

And you know what we did? We went out! For the first time in a year we ate in a restaurant, inside even. When we called our local Red Robin they said they were not busy, under the 25% capacity allowed, so we jumped in the car and went out for burgers and fries. We rejoiced with the waitress. We felt giddy. (Yes, it had been two weeks since our second shot)

We loved all of our Field Trip Day, including the ending. 

PS: It took a second level Geek Squad guy remotely operating our computer, to fix our Microsoft/Google War, but we are back in business.