Duke Botanical Gardens: A Lovely Halfway Spot

During the school year we spent a lot of our history time studying British history and the early exploration and settling of North America.

Knowing we had family living in the Jamestown area, we began planning an end-of-the-school-year Virginia trip back in the winter.

And last weekend, we headed northeast for a couple of days of relaxing educational adventuring.

Looking at the map, it seemed we would be passing through Durham right around lunch time.

Our good pal PopPop lives in Durham and when we contacted him to see if he’d be available for lunch that day, he said more than just “yes”.

Bob (that’s the name his momma gave him, instead of the nickname grandkids have given him) set us up like visiting royalty.

At his suggestion, we met at the incredibly beautiful Duke Botanical Gardens, just minutes from the interstate.

Bob brought us a picnic lunch and we munched and chatted under the shade of some lovely, well-manicured trees before we stretched our legs and explored the garden grounds for about an hour.

The landscape was marvelous.

Different themes were crafted throughout the extensive gardens.

The teacher in me kept thinking about how I wished we could come back every week and sit down in the middle of any of the  gardens through which we traipsed and pull out our nature notebooks and draw, draw, draw.

There were picturesque red bridges, giant goldfish at which to toss our leftover bread crumbs and the biggest magnolia tree I’ve ever seen – perfect for climbing.

It turned out to be the most ideal halfway point for our journey.  

The gardens were free, the company was excellent, the kids were thrilled to run and climb and feed fish between hours of sitting patiently in the car.

It was perfect.

If your family finds itself on some road trips crossing the surprisingly wide state of North Carolina this summer, the Botanical Gardens would be a wise spot to make a stop.

A picnic with a friend enjoying God’s beautiful creation beats a fast food restaurant and an over-heated kids playground any day of the week.