Discovering Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens

Another day, another National Park, right in our own backyard-the Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens. The wetlands is home to a large wildlife population and is most well known for their preservation of waterlilies and lotuses...like waterlilies and lotuses bigger than your head!

We went today with a friend who has lived in DC for a number of years and hadn't been here yet and we both kept experiencing slack jaw from this amazing piece of land that is within the DC city (district?) limits. It was simply beautiful. Granted we came right after the formal Water Lily and Lotus Festival so the flowers were just showing off, but I can imagine it's just as stunning during other parts of the year.

I made Henry a scavenger hunt of wildlife to find during our trip and while we sadly never did find a coveted frog (can be tough when you are yelling "I don't see any frogs, MOOOOOM!"), we did spot plenty of turtles, tadpoles, egrets, butterflies, dragonflies, honey bees, geese, and ducks. Oh, and I saw a frog before the bull in a wildlife preserve came bounding down the path ;)

I had no idea water lilies could grow this tall!

Josephine was not feeling the photos today.