Botanical Gardens

So I have been saving one of the best locations for last. I partially saved it for last because it is the place where I took the most photographs and therefore had the greatest amount of editing to be done.The Botanical Gardens was absolutely gorgeous. It was a slightly rainy day, but that didn't hinder the photography or the experience at all. The foliage within the greenhouses were vibrant and beautiful and despite the fact that you are not allowed tripods within the greenhouses (for space reasons) I was still able to get some nice shots. Dave and I were also able to set the camera up on rocks and take some semi-long exposure shots. There weren't very many people there, so that helped with the longer shots as well.I think one of the more interesting greenhouses was the ones with the bonsai and the Chinese equivalent, penjing. There was a little robin in the one area that I thought was fake. I stared at the little guy and moved my camera near him and he did not move. We walked on and when we did walk back, he had moved to a new location and was wandering around the little trees. It was very spooky, but he was adorable so I forgave him for it.We eventually found our way out of the greenhouses and walked around the exterior gardens. They were just as nice and they were in extreme humidity so both Dave and I were able to stop sweating so much and my camera was able to stop fogging up every ten minutes or so. We walked around the 'normal' gardens and found our way over to the Chinese exterior gardens. They were simply breathtaking in their beauty. Dave asked me to take as many shots as possible of the architecture around the gardens and I did not object. I'm not entirely sure what my favourite shot is from that garden, but I am putting these ones on this blog and I am sure the rest will eventually make their way on to my photography blog in the near future.We then walked over to the Insectarium which is located on the garden grounds. It is a small little pavilion similar to those at the Toronto Zoo, and is absolutely stuffed with one man's collection which he donated to the gardens. They have since added to it and are displaying live insects as well, but the majority of it apparently all belonged to one man whose name I forget right now. There were some really neat looking bugs on display, both alive and dead, and some absolutely massive ones! It was pretty neat, though I hope I never run into the vast majority of that collection in the wild.