A Sunday off With Chris - Bios

Chris is usually on call, back-up call, or back-up-back-up call at the hospital. Very rarely does he get a day when we can spend the whole day further away than 30 minutes from Camp Lester. But on this particular Sunday, we made the most of every bit of the time he had off. So with so many pictures to share, I'll have to split this blog up into 3 parts. Here goes part 1!

Our first stop on our all-day long adventure was to a much talked about place called Bios on the Hill. It's Kind of like Moody Gardens in Galveston meets a petting zoo meets Biltmore Estates. Kind of. Most of you probably haven't been to both Moody Gardens AND Biltmore Estates, but those of you like myself will understand completely. :-) There are a lot of pictures here folks...get ready for a tour through Bios!

Their displays of naturally growing orchids are amazing. They had some other cool attractions there as well, but overall I think we liked this part the most because I don't know about you...but I think orchids are kind of hard to grow (at least they are way too intimidating for me to try to grow!!). 

These dragons sprayed a cool mist to cool you off. 

Check out how they made those trees grow! 

Ben took this 3/4 family picture.

Poor water buffalo...

We went on a tour around a lagoon in Bios. Had Chris known that it was going to be all in Japanese he probably would not of bought the tickets. We thought it was really humorous that the one thing the guide pointed out special for us in English was the one thing we recognized: Spanish Moss.

All four of us enjoyed these tall swings! 

I mean, it looks like she isn't having fun but she really was...

Playing a clay pot stacking game with a fishing pole

3 against 1 on the seesaw

Walking/feeding goats. Poor fellas didn't have much shade. 

They had some amazing play structures

And more neat swings...

And of course more beautiful orchids.

A picture of a picture, but I thought it was beautiful. 

Huge fern on Chris's head. Fern-fro.

These pretty little orchids had a particularly pleasant smell. We almost bought some to bring home and plant, but we didn't. We should have though!

Spanish moss for sale

A sweet assortment of Okinawan Salt Cookies

Orchid arrangements for sale

Can you imagine all those orchids in your house? 

Just want to put a disclaimer out there that I'm not a huge fan of how Japanese think of animals (the goats and water buffalo). There is no PETA here. No rules that I can tell governing how animals should be treated. I mean, it's not that they are overtly mistreated, but let's just say you wouldn't see some of these things in the States. If you can put that aside, then Bios was a pretty neat place to visit.  My next blog will be about the "Egg Shop/Mini-mini Zoo." My disclaimer goes for that place as well...