Thursday, May 17, 2012

Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens

Barry's mom and I were fortunate enough to receive these bouquets from our sweet boys on Mother's Day.  There is something so special about the relationship between a mother and her son.  I am looking forward to many more Mother's Days down the road, as Ryan grows and evolves into his own person.  I can't wait to see which aspects of his personality will essentially define him.


We headed over to the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens early Sunday morning, in hopes of getting ahead of the Mother's Day crowd.  We were pleasantly surprised to be the first ones seated in the restaurant, and we were handed a specialty menu with a variety of choices for brunch options.


We started off with mimosas and a small appetizer.  Then, I had an eggplant dish with garlic sauce over rice.  For dessert, I tried Manju for the first time and I liked it.  Manju are ice cream bon bons wrapped in rice paste, and the flavors I that had were green tea and strawberry. Yum!

Ryan tasted regular chocolate ice cream for the first time, but after one bite decided that he didn't like it. (Seriously, a child who prefers bread and avocado to ice cream?)  I think that it was a texture thing, because the ice cream was somewhat frozen and hard to scoop.  By the time it melted, Ryan had already lost interest and was ready to move on.


The three of us spent a couple hours walking around, exploring the bonsai and other beautiful plants, and taking pictures.  It was such a peaceful morning, just spending time in nature together as a family.


There were some engaging exhibits on Japanese art and history at the on-site museum.  I had Barry and Ryan pose for this picture, which represents an elementary classroom in Japan (Through the Eyes of a Child exhibit).  There was also a Japanese house with tatami mats and a train station that children were encouraged to explore.


This pretty much wraps up our vacation to Florida.  I am glad that we were able to do so many things and visit some fun places.  Thanks to Barry's parents for hosting us and for not minding when Ryan (and us) made messes and when things got a little crazy.  We truly had a fantastic time!


2 comments:

  1. I absolutely loved reading through all of your vacation posts and seeing so many beautiful pictures of your whole family! It looks like all of you had such an amazing time and I love watching Ryan grow! He is so precious.

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  2. Thank you! Ryan loves you too. I think he wants you to come over and read him a book! haha.

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