Bongoland

This morning I took James geocaching to a botanical gardens about 20 minutes away. I had heard about this place a few times, but was reminded about it by my friend Leah. It is a really cool place, and it has tons of history! First it was a sugar mill plantation in the 1800's and there are still ruins and equipment preserved on the property.

 

 Then it was converted into a sort-of amusement park in the 1940's called Bongoland, with huge stone dinosaurs, a caged baboon named Bongo, and a train that took you around on a tour. It shut down after only a few years due to lack of interest, I guess those kind of amusement parks weren't in style back then! Luckily the dinosaurs are still standing.

A giant ground sloth:

 Walking on the dino foot prints:

 T-rex:

 Stegosaurus:

 Triceratops:

Now it has been adopted by a local nonprofit group as a botanical garden and it is gorgeous!! There are all these little side gardens, like an Asian garden, an herb garden, a "natural chapel" with walls of bamboo and trees, and even a human sundial. My favorite is this gorgeous tree they call a "confederate tree" because supposedly confederate soldiers camped under it during the civil war:

James and I had so much fun exploring, but we didn't end up finding the geocache. There was a wedding going on (who has a wedding at 10 in the morning on a Tuesday??) and I didn't want to interrupt with my weird looking under and over rocks geocache search :) In a way it is good, because it means we have a reason to go back soon!