Something Old

Although I have lived in Baltimore my entire life, minus the 4 years I was in college, I am still finding new and exciting places to visit and things to do. Especially with A now in my life, and being a stay-at-home mom, I like to find new places for us to explore each day. I mean don't get me wrong, I love going to the zoo and the pool, but even I get bored of them sometimes. So yesterday after A woke up from her nap, we headed off to find a place I had never heard of before but found online...Cylburn Arboretum.

Let me start off by giving you a little history of the place, since that is what sold me on the visit. First of all, as you know, Baltimore is a very busy city, so having this gorgeous property nestled right outside the city center, is quite a find! Cylburn Arboretum is a 101 acre property that consists of walking trails, gardens, and a mansion. The mansion was built in 1863 by Jesse Tyson as a summer home for his mother and himself. This post Civil War mansion is built almost entirely out of gneiss, a coarse-grained layered rock where the light and dark mineral separate into visible bands, which was mined out of the quarry about 10 miles from the property. Pretty cool that the material for the house was mined in Baltimore too!

Can't you just picture yourself on the porch with a cocktail!

I mean, really...a summer home!

I love the sky in this picture

The other side of the mansion...the garden side

Secret Garden...Couldn't you just see a wedding here?

Anyway, enough history (can you tell I was an elementary school teacher), after nap time A and I headed towards the city, to see what we could find. When we arrived at Cylburn, I thought it must be closed, since it was a beautiful, and not too hot summer afternoon and we were the only car in the parking lot. But we unpacked the stroller and headed towards the adorable (and very modern, which surprised me) information center. There we got a map, and a list of events they had free to the public, before we headed off on our adventure. It was about a 1/2 mile walk to the mansion and gardens so we thought that was a good place to start. As you can see A ran around the grass, smelled flowers, and chased bunnies for over an hour. Finally, after she began to really stumble, I loaded her back in the stroller, gave her a snack, and headed towards the car.

A little timid at first with all the new flowers

We worked on touching without picking!

Not always successful...

Playing hide-and-seak with mommy

Checking out the benches

One, two, three, four...ready or not, here I come!

Huh...where could mommy be?

There you are!

I think running away pictures are so timeless.

Getting that glazed look...time to head home.

I got a chance to read the information about Cylburn last night  and found out they have a nature story time on Tuesday! So you better believe we are going to pack a lunch, grab A's best buddy E, and his mommy, and head back to the sprawling hillsides and gardens for some more fun Tuesday morning!

xoxo

Daily Mom

If you want to learn more about Cylburn Arboretum