Mommy took me to Dow Gardens today. We've had so many other things going on this summer that we kind of forgot to go before now. Mommy wanted to make sure that we got there while there were still things to see and do in the Children's Garden.

We started out, as we always do, by going and looking at the waterfall. I like to look and see where the water goes under the path and then comes out into the stream.

After that, we spent some time walking around looking at the flowers. I liked stopping to see what the different flowers smelled like.

We went into the Conservatory, which is where they have the butterflies in the spring. I was hoping there would still be some butterflies in there today, but they had let them all go in the spring. They did have a bunch of new birds in the big birdcage, though. When we first came in, they were all lined up together in a row on the rope, except for one that was down on the other end of the rope. Later on, they started flying around and we saw some still on the rope and others in the little trees.

After we left the Conservatory, we started making our way towards the Children's Garden. Mommy was taking a picture of some really pretty flower beds that were up the hill from this pond and I wanted her to take a picture of me, too, so she did.

Then we saw this bench with the flowers surrounding it, so Mommy wanted me to sit there for a picture. I didn't really want to, because there was a bee flying around those flowers. She finally got me to sit, but I was still looking for that bee and just wanted her to hurry up and take the picture so I could get out of there!

These rocks are along the path on that goes past the waterfall. I wanted to climb on them, but Mommy thought it would be better if maybe I just leaned up against one for a picture instead.

As we were finally getting to the Children's Garden, we could see these yellow flowers. From the distance they looked like they were growing on the hill in front of the garden, but Mommy thought they were actually in the garden. And she was right. They were really tall sunflowers, growing all around the big metal pig!

I spent some time playing with the water sprays.

I pumped up a lot of water. I even figured out that if I pumped the handle and nothing happened that I could pour a little water in the top of the pump and it would start again. I filled up watering can after watering can and dumped them out in the trough and filled them up again.

I even filled up a couple of times and went and watered some of the vegetables.

After we left Dow Gardens, we went over to the Center for the Arts and went to the ZAP! Surgery exhibit. I think Mommy found it more interesting than I did, or she would have if I had given her a chance to read about all the different kinds of procedures. I did do some of the interactive displays. I listened to breathing, a heartbeat and a stomach gurgling through a stethescope.

I really thought the cold room where the lady talked about cryosurgery was fun. It was only about 55 degrees in there, not the -300 degrees that they use to freeze tumors. I made Mommy take me in here twice.

We learned about how doctors use soundwaves to break up things like kidney stones and this display told us about things like gamma rays and uv rays.

There were other intereactive displays that showed how doctors use robots to perform surgery. They were fun, but it usually took both of us to get them to work right. I was a little short and they were hard to manouver from a step stool. Still, it was fun and I'm glad I got to go, even if I didn't understand most of what I was seeing.