San Diego Botanic Garden

Without a doubt, the highlight of our recent trip to San Diego was the San Diego Botanic Garden.  We loved it, and had I known how much my kids would enjoy themselves, I would have allotted more time to spend there.

The grounds are immaculate and simply gorgeous.  Paved trails lead visitors through the various thematic gardens.

Whimsical sculptures appeared in random places throughout the gardens.

My kids loved looking for toads, frogs and turtles in the pond.  See if you can spot them in the photos below....

This is also a "working" garden...

The San Diego Botanic Garden also has two areas designed specifically for children.  In the "Seeds of Wonder", the kids are free to explore lots of sculptures, sand play areas, a water pump with plastic sea creatures to play with, a kid-sized clubhouse, a miniature railroad, and they even get to pot their own cactus to take home.  I know my youngest would have loved more time to spend here.

We moved on so we would have some time at the other children's area in the garden.  My jaw dropped when we arrived.  We could easily have spent the entire day here - indulging in all sorts of imaginative play. The feature attraction is a gigantic tree house.

Right next to the tree house was an area for arts and crafts, and a huge expanse of sand, building logs, and sand toys.  My teenager ended up with a following of little kids as he built a house out of the logs.

Also in the children's garden was a section dedicated to music with all sorts of hands-on noisemakers, a hummingbird garden, an alphabet garden, and a small stream with boats.

We happened to come on a day when the Garden was hosting a special summer evening event.  We got to enjoy a musical performance from Disney princesses and a meet-'n-greet afterward.

If I lived locally, I would definitely buy a membership to this place.  We'll put it on our itinerary, but give it a full, long day, the next time we go to San Diego.