Playdate at Kew Gardens

This weekend, we explored close to home.  One of Erik's colleagues at work, Magnus, invited us to join his family at Kew Gardens on Saturday.  Magnus and his wife Paula have two boys the exact same ages as our kids, so we jumped at the opportunity for the kids to have some other kids to play with.  Kew Gardens is also a world famous botanical garden with over 2000 species of trees-- basically, a botanist's paradise.  We arrived at the main gate, excited for our adventure.

Main entrance gate, Kew Gardens

After some brief introductions, the kids ran off together to climb trees and play on the playground, which included this really fun zipline-type swing.

Four boys (plus one unknown girl) in a tree

Kew Gardens play area

Kew Gardens was huge, and while we covered a lot of ground, we were moving quickly (thanks to four small boys) and didn't have much time to linger and appreciate.  Here are some of my favorite parts.

Evolution House, a brief stroll through geologic time, from primordial soup to the advent of angiosperms (those are flowering plants for you less botanically inclined readers)

Early plants: ferns, conifers, and a magnolia

Beautiful glass houses filled with plants from all over the world.  Four young boys weren't particularly patient admirers of the flora, so we took some quick walks through. 

An orchid, one of the few plant photos I managed to take

What the boys liked best was sliding down these slanted parts next to the stairs.

We took a tram tour of the gardens and saw this pagoda, built in 1762 when "Chinoiserie" was all the rage in England.  There is also a royal palace on the grounds.  There seems to be a royal palace everywhere we visit.

A gazebo covered in vines

The monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana) with leaves that are like triangular scales

Massive trees, like this horse chestnut

Flowers in the shape and colors of the Olympic rings

Plant-related art installations, including this beautiful sculpture created from a eucalyptus tree.

We stayed nearly until the gardens were closed, happy for a lovely day outside with some lovely people. We thought we had seen most everything, but a review of the map on our way out revealed that we had only managed to see about half of what's there.  We hope to get back there to see the rest, but there's so much to see and so little time. On our way out, we saw a cricket match in a park just outside the gardens.  Watching them play seemed like a rite of passage for us, though only Erik had any vague clue of what was going on.

You've gotta love a sport that men play in sweater vests.