The one highlight of my long weekend was when my mom and I decided to spend Saturday at a local Botanical Garden.  When my mom brought up the idea, I thought it sounded like it would be a lovely area to check out and it would be the perfect opportunity to get some exercise while sightseeing.  We decided to pick up the always safe Subway for lunch and make a day of it.

The area was gorgeous and while we didn’t check out the entire area, we learned that they have several trails that you can follow to get some great exercise.  I’m anxious to get back and check out the other trails, but I just wish it was a bit closer to where I live.

I took a few pictures that you can see here.  And here is one of me near one of the waterfalls.  If I look at this picture and forget about the rest of the day, I can almost imagine that I was actually somewhere like Hawaii. 

I did have one rather humorous moment at the gardens.  I was walking behind my mom and we were getting ready to walk across a bridge.  I asked my mom to take a step to the side, so I could take a picture of the bridge.  I’m not a meanie, I promise.  The gardens actually have rules that you aren’t supposed to take picture containing people unless you have a permit.  Which, as you can see by the picture above, we decided to ignore later on our walk.  When she turned around, she reached out and smacked me right in the forehead!  Completely without any warning!  I’m absolutely sure the look on my face was priceless.  My mom is definitely not a violent woman, so I was completely stunned.  I think my first comment after “ow!” was something along the lines of “what was that for?!?!”  Apparently, when she turned around, she immediately saw that I had a blood-sucking mosquito drilling for oil in the middle of my forehead.  Whereas most people would say, “hey, hold still, there’s a bug on you,” and then reach out and wipe it away, she wanted to make sure the sucker was dead.

By the time I got home that day, the whole middle of my forehead was swollen incredibly.  The swelling has gone down quite a bit, thank God, but I still have a rather large, rather red bump in the middle of my forehead that I can see every time I look in the mirror.   I wish I could wear a sign that says, “It’s a mosquito bite, not a zit.”  When you add in the other five (at least) bites I got, I’m a rather itchy mess.

At least I can laugh about it.