A Stunning Sunday

Sunday was another hot, sunny day.  I decided a day or two before that my goal for Sunday was going to be to hit up LotusFest at the Bergen Water Gardens.  It's a place I found out about in the last year or so.  It's another gem that was highlighted on social media by John Kucko, a local news guy who moved from doing sports for 20+ years to doing digital content that involves him driving around New York State and highlighting cool things in nature, roadside attractions, and other interesting things.  He'll broadcast a lakeside sunset one day, post photos from a hike the next, highlight a barn or waterfall another, and visit a cool shop or personal antique collection after that.  He talked about this place months back and I was slightly obsessed.  They have lotus flowers and water lilies, and I have been obsessed with water lilies since I went to see the Chihuly exhibit at Biltmore six years ago and saw some there.  They are so stunning, so crisp and perky and perfect.  So, I started following them on Facebook and admiring their periodic posts.

Last week they started talking about LotusFest that weekend, and I thought that would be a great opportunity to visit.  To be honest, I wasn't sure if it was a place that was open all the time, or whether it was sort of a private property situation or had very specific availability.  So this was a good chance to comfortably check it out. 

We actually got a later start than I had anticipated.  Jacob and Craig stayed home from church because of the concussion situation.  Carter and I went, but I was just feeling off.  I was super tired and wasn't sure if I had a brewing stomach thing because I felt a little weak and empty-ish, almost like you feel after you have a stomach bug but before you get hungry again.  Not as bad, but like the early stages, which made me wonder if I had something brewing and my body wasn't properly absorbing nutrition from the previous day.  We came home from church and I sat for a bit, then finally decided to go lay down until it was time for lunch.  Craig and Jacob had headed out, ideally to go to cryotherapy, which is supposedly good for concussions, and then probably on to the emergency room if the headache didn't get any better, so Carter and I were on our own.  I ended up resting for about 45 minutes.  I felt a little better by then.  Not great, but functional.  Carter had expressed a desire to continue on to Darien Lake after the water garden stop, but I wasn't sure I had it in me.  I figured we'd pack up accordingly, grab some lunch out, eat it on the way, and hopefully after the water garden I would perk up enough to go to Darien.  

We ordered lunch from Wendy's, but when we got there the drive-thru line was long and the dining room doors were locked.  The drive-thru line barely moved the entire time we were trying the doors and getting back in the car to get in line, and since we were already running late I wasn't sure it was wise to stay, as I've gotten stuck in very long waits there before.  I opted to cancel that order and go down the street to KFC instead.  Annoying, but that went smoothly, and on we went.

When we got there, there were a good number of cars parked, but nothing too intimidating.  It turns out it's essentially a plant nursery.  I don't know that I will ever have a garden exotic enough for this stuff, but it was amazing.  This was the first spot we looked, which was full of bogs with water lilies, waterfalls to the left, and lots of large pots.

The flowers were indeed gorgeous.

There were also a lot of dragonflies everywhere!  Zoom in on the next two pictures and you can see them.

It's on the tip of the water lily bud

It's near the tip of the plant in the foreground

Everything was so pretty.  I swear water lilies are a geometric wonder.  Their structure is amazing.  I think I love them for the same reason I love dahlias.

They had a few of these lovely little waterfalls, too.  I can only imagine that this is a great, tantalizing place for someone looking to build something like that in their yard.  Sort of like how I feel when I walk through the tile or lighting sections at Lowe's!

The red thing in the back is a Chinese lantern in the lotus garden

Next stop was the lotus garden.  Although I have obviously heard of lotus flowers and had a vague idea of what they look like, this was really fascinating.  There were a bunch of varieties and I guess I never knew they looked quite like this...especially the center.  They're otherworldly, like something out of Avatar at Disney.  They're all pretty big, about the size of my hand with even bigger leaves, all growing out of water bogs. 

Look at that center!

Some of them were as tall as Carter!

In the picture below you can see what the buds and spent seed pods look like.  Eventually they expand to the point where the seeds will fall out and spread.  They look sort of creepy in some ways, like bugs are going to crawl out or something, but I think I'm just traumatized from an altered internet photo I saw a few times that used a lotus pod and replaced the seeds with something creepy.

We went inside the greenhouses after that.  One was full of plants, but it felt weird because barely anything was flowering.  This isn't that kind of nursery, after all.  It did have some orchids, and it turns out this stunning set of leaves was one.

The varieties and colors were really beautiful.

Much of the greenhouse was full of pitcher plants, venus fly traps, and other carnivorous plants.  This particular one was huge, probably at least six inches tall with a couple inch diameter.  I bet it could kill a mouse.  But it was also really pretty!

There was another greenhouse with fish for koi ponds, and another with more orchids. 

Back outside, which despite the heat felt better than the humid greenhouses, we checked out the rest of the property.  There was a slightly crooked pagoda gazebo.

Out back was a number of ponds.  There weren't as many flowers in them as I was hoping, but we did see a tiny turtle and a lot of dragonflies.

This one was so pretty!  Look at that blue!

One of the few flowers with quite the set of surrounding lily pads.

Another dragonfly here, but these ones with the striped wings were so cool-looking.  They were really hard to photograph, though. 

Looking back up at the property from below...

We saw this flower on the way back up.  Such a huge and gorgeous hibiscus.

It may not have been at the top of Carter's list for ways to spend 45 minutes on a Sunday, but I think ultimately he still thought it was pretty cool and interesting to see all of the pitcher plants and other weird flowers.  Definitely not your typical plant nursery but a neat experience nonetheless!

I was in fact feeling a lot better by this point, so on to Darien we went.  I guess fast food (and maybe a little caffeine) cures all, right?  Unfortunately we hadn't had a chance to go and use our season passes yet this year.  It just hadn't worked out between busy weekends, weather, and the Dominican/COVID period.  But even two uses of the passes is more than worth it once you factor in parking and all of that, so it's still not a bad investment if you can manage that.  We decided to focus our energy on the water park, just in case we can't get back there this month before it closes for the season.  We'll have time into September to get back and ride rides, but the waterpark window is so small.  They had reopened a slide this year that was closed all last summer, so we definitely wanted to ride that.  Everything was open except Brain Drain, the one where the floor drops out, which was a little bit of a bummer but also a relief as that one still terrifies me despite having a couple slides under my belt!  We initially thought the lines weren't bad, but quickly realized that only the visible lines on the stairs weren't bad--but most rides had long waits for tubes on the ground.  Boo.  We did a lot of walking around at first to find a line we were content with, but it was a super hot day to be in bare feet on pavement so that was rough. 

Carter started out with the kids section and did a slide there, and then we moved on and decided the lazy river was our best bet.  We had a bit of a wait for a tube, but better than most slides.  It was pretty refreshing once we got in, especially since our feet had been burning off.  We then hit up the Tornado, our favorite, which wasn't terrible since the double tube line was shorter than the quad tubes.  It always leaves us laughing hysterically!  We went from there to the Big Kahuna, the slide that was closed last year.  You may recall that one as the family tube slide that my nephew Max nervously rode the first time we went to Darien with them three years ago.  It's a big round boat tube that fits four.  It was closed all last year so we figured they were fixing it, but it was still pretty leaky!  But we do think they got new tubes.  It's a fun ride, with lots of sloshing up the sides!  We went from there to Wahoo Wave, which was a much shorter wait than in the past, and most importantly, I figured out how best to carry the giant tube myself!  It was around this point that the lines were all getting significantly shorter, much like at Waldameer, which was a relief!  Wahoo Wave was a lot of fun, and then we went back over to the quad slide, which again, had almost no wait for tubes compared to the long line it had before.  We chose to do Mister Twister, the one that has three sloshy little twists in the slide, but we did it on separate tubes instead of a double to save time.  It's such a great ride and definitely the best bang for the buck when you have to wait a bit, though our stair wait was maybe only about 15 minutes.  Of course, part of that was spent with two tween siblings behind us in line, constantly messing around and fighting and bumping into me, on stairs of all things, and I was just waiting for it (especially given our sibling issue this week)--and sure enough, the sister shoved the brother and he tripped down a couple steps and painfully stubbed his toe.  Duh.  Anyway, our rides were great, and we wrapped up with a pretty quick wait on the racing slides.  Not as good as Waldameer, but I'm learning to tolerate them.  By then it was about closing time for the waterpark, and just in time because our feet were toast.  Between the hotness of the pavement and how rough it is in spots, our feet were rubbed pretty raw and it hurt to walk any longer.  The outsides of the balls of my feet were sore right through Monday!

We only had a couple hours after that to change, get some food, and ride a couple rides.  Food there is so expensive so we just settled on a pretzel for the moment.  But it took us a while to scope out the food and ride lines so we probably spent a half hour on that process.  The ride lines were still long but we decided to prioritize Ride of Steel.  It was a wait, maybe a half hour, but we hit it just right because it was way longer by the time we got off.  It was delightful as usual, especially at sunset.  I was bummed that Predator was closed (because it got more retracking over the winter and I was eager for a smoother ride) and Tantrum's line was too long, but I did consent to riding Boomerang since that got an offseason overhaul on its loop.  And sure enough, the loop was better!  Not better enough to offset the rough heart loop that gave me a heck of a head bash right at the end, but we made it.  My head only hurt for about 15 minutes, but I figured if it lasted longer, at least I'd sympathize better with Jacob!  We thought about riding something else after that, but the drop tower line was too long and by then we were eager to get home--I had to work in the morning, after all!  So we headed out...but our main mission was accomplished!  Quick selfie in the lot...

...and off we went.  We stopped at the Speedway near the Thruway on the way to grab Slurpees and snacks to supplement dinner, and got back on the road.  It had been quite the day!  And what a whirlwind weekend!  I was not really prepared for work on Monday but I can't say it wasn't a fun and fulfilling couple days!