Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna

I saw a story in the Washington Post the other day about Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna. It’s quite close to our northern Virginia home, so we decided to drive out that way for a morning walk. The US Botanical Gardens in DC are my favorite gardens. We walked through them many times over the thirteen years we lived on Capitol Hill. The gardens opened at ten o’clock and there were already quite a few cars in the parking lot. It costs $3.00 for admission. So we got a map and started out heading to our left, traversed both the paved and hiking trails, and passed by some very pretty venues. Unfortunately we just missed the beauty of spring. There were still some hints of it - almost gone tulips and a few flowering trees. Otherwise it was pretty much in between the spring to summer seasons. The walk itself was nice and the water features and sculpture were lovely. It felt a bit too “artificial” for our liking, but it was worth the visit. We missed a whole section because we veered off on an alternate path on the way back without knowing where we would end up. It’s a nice option for a variety of occasions. There is an atrium for special events and I’m sure a lot of educational opportunities for the kids. We may return sometime as I’m sure it takes on very different looks throughout the seasons. It was a nice change of pace.