When Spring Training is delayed, you start looking at what are hubby approved places on the bucket list. Museums are okay depending on the cost and the kind of museum. He is frugal.. okay so am I. Zoos and nature are really not his thing. I mentioned the botanical garden and he did say he would like to see them especially since we got a sneak peak the other year when we tried to go to the restaurant there for lunch and realized it was foo-foo, expensive, and totally not our kind of place.
Luckily for us the second Tuesday of the month is community day at the Desert Botanical Gardens and admission is free. Currently the price is $40/adult because it's peak season and there's an Chihuly exhibit going on. As much as I would loved to have seen the Chihuly exhibit, there is no way I would pay $80 to see blown glass and cacti. Just saying.
Due to COVID, you had to get tickets ahead of time for a certain. I think this is a great idea especially on a free day when it could get really crowded really quick. Hopefully they keep this going after the pandemic. I was initially worried because we have a Wisconsin address but that didn't matter. I got us two tickets for entry between 9 and 10 am. Even if baseball wasn't delayed, we would been able to do this.
The botanical gardens were a lot of different cacti. Even though we got there right at nine, it was open for an hour already and there were still a lot of people.
We saw Pipe Organ Cacti
Joshua Trees
Barrel Cacti
A really cool green tree.. I'm sure it has a scientific name but green tree works for me
Pretty flowers
And more Saguaro Cacti
The best part of the Desert Botanical Gardens and the real reason I wanted to go was the Chihuly in the Desert Exhibit. Dale Chihuly is a world renown glass artist that creates impressive sculptures out of blown glass. These pieces are scattered throughout the botanical gardens adding a splash of color to the normally drab desert look.
There was also an inside exhibit which featured some of his artwork and more blown glass pieces.
We kind of just wandered aimlessly down whatever path we felt like. We did not have a map. Others did but we were not given one nor did we ask for one. It was really well signed though. We avoided the butterfly garden and other places I knew the hubby wasn't going to be overly interested in. He might have liked the butterfly garden but I saw enough butterfly gardens in Costa Rica. We probably spent about an hour there which is way less than most people but we saw what we wanted to see.
The Desert Botanical Gardens are worth seeing at least once and if can go there on a free day it is even better. There is not a lot of parking and it is close to the Zoo, ASU Campus, and Tempe Diablo Stadium so you can plan your day accordingly.
Just being able to see the Chihuly exhibit was worth the trip to the Botanical Gardens. Other than the it is a bunch of cacti and lots of people. It is one of those things that if we have nothing better to do and it's a free day, we might check out again but really have no desire to go back. Maybe I'd go back a bit later in spring when things are in bloom but again not much changes.
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