Go to Festival of Spring at the Paine Art Center

 My friend Kas texted me asking if I was going to that plant thing at the Paine in Oshkosh. I was like wasn't planning on and after looking at the Facebook event, I decided it looked neat. I told I would meet her down there around 11:30.

That plant thing was the Festival of Spring -- Plant Sale and Art Fair. It is exactly what the name describes -- a plant sale, art fair, and food trucks. We just bought the last plant we needed last night and I didn't need plants but I had nothing better to do and it is free.

Parking is limited at the Paine. You could pay $5 and park in the church next door or attempt to find street parking. I opted for the later. I ended up parking about 4-5 blocks away and I figured I could use the extra steps.

After meeting up with Kas and her family, we decided to grab lunch before looking at the plants and art. The food truck options were limited. You could have Chinese, Gyros, or Pizza. Everyone was having Chinese.. and so did we. We waited a good twenty minutes for our food after ordering. The crab ragoons had a bit too much cream cheese for my liking but there were still good.

The Boba drink was really good. It was the first time ever having a Boba drink and in the heat, the smoothie type drink was amazing. There was many flavors to chose from and I opted for raspberry as a safe bet. 

By the time we finished eating, we checked out the plant sale. Unfortunately many of the plants were already gone. The concept was great but in the future, make sure you check out the plants before you eat. There are spots to hold your plants until you are ready to leave so you can enjoy the art fair, the art center, and gardens without having to lug around plans.

The art fair had a fair number of booths with many difficult types of crafts. I didn't buy anything. I couldn't find a new Badger sign like the one we have now. Kas picked up some tree charms. If I had a tree they would have been cool. The hubby probably would have rolled his eyes at me. 

There were also musical performers. 

We wandered some of the gardens. Not much in bloom yet. One day I maybe I will be able to see the gardens in bloom.

We were going to take advantage of the free admission to the Paine but not everyone had masks with them. 

It was a really nice event. I would definitely go back but get there earlier to be able to check out the plants. It is a yearly event. My only compliant is that they need more food trucks.

3893. Go to the Green Bay Botanical Gardens

At my tea party in May, Amanda mentioned she would like to do something fun wearing her fancy hat. We agreed this would be fun. I discovered the Green Bay Botanical Gardens were free on Wednesday nights in summer and I thought that would be fun to go to wearing fancy hats. We originally planned on going in early June but Mother Nature had other plans and we rescheduled for tonight. Mother Nature still threatened to rain us out again but the storms never materialized. Even though it was hot, there was a periodic breeze that helped.

When Danielle and I were at the gardens in winter, we decided we wanted to see the gardens in bloom. We only saw a small portion of the gardens when we were there last as we didn’t follow the path to the lower gardens. Because it would have messed with Danielle’s mojo if we went counterclockwise, we tried to follow a clockwise pattern through the gardens. That only worked for so long before we got turned around in the lower gardens. It would have been nice to have a map.

We spent about an hour or so wandering through the gardens, avoiding Pokeman seekers, and trying not to lose our hats when the wind blew. I really enjoyed seeing all the flowers. I am not a big plant person but I do appreciate pretty looking flowers. There were a lot of non-flowering plants and shrubs which although nice, I didn’t spend much time looking at. Besides flowers, plants, and shrubs there were garden statues and structures scattered about. The gardens are beautiful and a great place for taking pictures, wandering the paths, and getting back to nature. I wish the Pokeman hunters would have taken time to appreciate the gardens while catching Pokeman and friends. They really don’t know what they were missing.

We even saw a fairy garden.

 There was a garden in a garden as Danielle liked to call it...

And they even were growing beer.. I mean hops

My favorite place in the gardens was the children’s gardens. You can water the animals, it is fun to play in, look at Mr. McGregor’s House from Peter Rabbit, and watch the giant goldfish. It was great place to take pictures. If we got there before 6:00, there would have been activities for kids… hopefully big kids too.

There were buildings scattered throughout. And plenty of statues and ornaments to look at too.

If the Gardens were even closer than Green Bay, I would be there every Wednesday. It is a nice place to walk around and there are minor hills so I even get a hill work out. Now I have a collection of pretty flower pictures…maybe one day I will frame them and put them up.