Longwood Gardens
Today I checked Longwood Gardens off from my "Never Have I Ever" list of places to go on my quest to find love. It actually all just came out of a random thought, but now it kind of fits. The idea is... Never have I ever found love. So what better way to attempt to find love than to apply the same logic to a quest for it.
Maybe quest isn't the right word to use. I feel like that's a bit like I'm conquering something which then leads down the terrible pathway of misogyny and that crap everyone hates, myself included.
But the idea is that I'm trying to piece together a puzzle of which I don't have all the pieces nor do I even know what the puzzle is even supposed to look like, and each of the puzzle pieces is constantly changing.
I'm just looking for love. Although apparently in all the wrong places it seems, as I haven't found it yet.
Anyways, back to the L-Wood G-dens (as the cool kids say).
The entrance was a bit like what I would imagine the entrance to Jurassic Park/Jurassic World might look like. From the spacious parking lot--you know how I feel about parking lots--I entered into a very welcoming... welcome center, of sorts.
I bought a ticket for $20 at the late hour of 4pm. The place closed at 6pm. I ended up sleeping the day away and then had to do a few things about the house before I could be on my way. Since it's about an hour away from my house I didn't arrive until 4pm.
Back to the welcome center... Bought a ticket, then went through another set of external glass doors into the wild kingdom of kind plants and pretty pathways, though for all I know there could have been a velociraptor or two hiding in the hedges.
I wandered about and decided that since I hadn't eaten lunch yet it might be best to grab a quick snack. They had beer too. Crazy. I snacked down a half a sandwich, a banana, and a Yards Brawler outside just enjoying the cool temps and the view. I sat next to a mother and her 3 kids which had some... interesting and imaginative things to say about "What if animals grew on trees". I laughed at the thought. Kids say the darnedest things right?
After a few minutes I wandered more. The next building a I happened upon I first thought looked a lot like the side or back entrance to the Upton Fink mansion from my current Twitter story titled "Lady Dragon Gold's Cosmo Girl Fan Club". It's a working title.
Though it may look like the Fink mansion... It's called The Conservatory in actuality.
Wow. It's mind boggling botanical beauty inside. They had a flower show of some sort going on. I have my favorites. Upon leaving The Conservatory I strolled on over through a few gardens sitting just below. They are currently doing construction to restore one of the gardens to it's great grandeur so that pathway was blocked off. I felt a bit like I was in the queen's royal gardens, minus the painting the roses red part. Lucky for me I get to keep my head. The various gardens really were quite breath taking...
My next new and nifty experience was an old estate grounds looking house. It's called the Peirce-Du Pont House. I was running short on time so I did not go inside. That will be an adventure for another time. I sat on the porch for a hot minute. Or a cool minute, since the temps outside were drastically different from what we've been experiencing up here in Philadelphia.
I loved this porch. It's my dream house porch. Maybe not exactly, but in the moment... I was quite taken with it. I sat and watched across the way as a very young, and very much so in love couple had engagement photos taken. The photographer had them dance, without any sort of music, as though there were a grand gala happening. They each clasped one of their hands tight, fingers interlaced and held it out before them. The other arm wrapped tightly around each other's backs. They swayed and synced stares as she snapped photos in succession with her very high powered professional camera. The lens capturing smiles from each of their faces forever digitized in very precisely placed pixels.
The time was getting late so I decided to move along. I meandered my way back past the mysteriously empty T-Rex cages thinking nothing of it, and found the doorway back to the welcome center. Just before the entrance there was a sign with upcoming shows and events. One of the artists I'd met while playing open mics at The Gryphon cafe back in the day is playing on Thursday. I decided that maybe I might come back again to see that. I asked at the information desk about how that worked and if I'd have to buy tickets. As it turns out it's part of the admission fee, but the admission is actually more money ($27) because it's a Nightscape experience night. But I was also informed that if I wanted to come that night, I could use my current ticket as a credit towards a member ticket. A member ticket is $65 and it lasts one year from the date of purchase. You can come as often as you like. In addition by purchasing a member ticket you get a $10 discount for new members which brings it down to $55 PLUS the credit from my ticket for today... $35. But wait there's more! I would also get two complimentary tickets for anyone to use at any time. So basically it's a no brainer. If I wanted to come back Thursday I had to pay $35 and I could come back as many times thereafter for one year. Or I could pay $27 once. I'm now a member. I had to do a reservation for the show and Nightscapes. Looks like my Thursday night is planned. So I left Longwood and went to my favorite winery for a few to relax and write. I got a bottle of white wine and had a glass. I corked the rest and I'll sip it throughout the week. I've found it's a better deal to get a bottle and then take home a doggie wine bag, or "a winey bag" instead of just one glass. I'm a regular little deal hunter. Or I'm getting swindled. I like to think I'm getting deals though. Let's just go with the first one.
A photo posted by Kenny (@kennywest82) on
Well, no love was found today. But I did have a nice time and I even had a couple of creative inspirations for writing and for music. As I sat in the car after I used my iPhone to record a little snippet of a new song idea that I had while walking around. And I jotted down some notes for books.
So add this to my list of places I didn't find love. Or maybe it's because I'm actively looking... everyone says that I'll find it when I stop looking. But I had a nice time anyway. And I'm excited to go back on Thursday to sip on a Longwood Gardens only Victory Brewing brewed beer while I watch some nice music and wander through the lit up at night time Nightscape garden experience.
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