30!

Today I am entering a new era in my life... I turn 30. I feel truly blessed and just know my thirties are going to have many wonderful, incredible moments. I had a very good day. Ben gave me a very nice card and took me to see the Chihuly exhibit at Fairchild Tropical Garden. We took SO many beautiful pictures that it was very difficult to decide what to even post. I've been to Fairchild Tropical Garden before with my mom, but it's been maybe five years ago. The mixture of the glass art and the nature was just great. Dale Chihuly is the artist. He is THE major glass artist and his pieces go for a bundle of money. He lives in Seattle, but sets up his exhibits all over the world. You will see some examples in the photos.

You would walk along the path and suddenly come up to some glass art. Beautiful!

This next one is of Ben and I under a canopy type thing. Like my hat? Notice Ben's "John Deere" hat from Alabama.




I wanted to take my picture with these flowers. They are so wispy and pretty.

Look closely at the bark of this tree. It's called a Rainbow Eucalyptus tree. It comes from Papua New Guinea (hope I spelled that right). Most Eucalyptus trees come from Austrailia, but not this one. The air changes the color of the bark from green at first, then it peels, and then to blue, and then it peels, and then to red. Never seen anything like it before!


This is a fun one. This is some of the glass art again. This piece is called Carnival Boat. Notice the iguana on the limb above the boat? We saw lots of them today... they give me the creeps. Apparently, they are really a big pain because they eat all the plants and stuff. I asked Ben why they don't just "accidentally" poison them.

These little onion shaped pieces are called Walla Wallas, but they reminded me of the candy from Willie Wonka. It was pretty.

This is a glass sculpture. One of the many on display. They say that you can come at night to the exhibit and they are all lit up. This sculpture weighs literally about two tons.