Botanical Garden: Mid-town Peace

This weekend we had nice weather, so I wanted my outing to be outdoors.  I decided to visit the Botanical Garden in downtown Washington.  Most of the garden is the conservatory green house, but because of that, there is a great variety of plants to see.

Inside The Conservatory the visitor can be transported to another place, like Hawaii or a dessert, or another time like the Primeval days.  You can also find plants to suit your daily needs in the Garden court, which has spices, fibers, woods, cosmetics, and beverages.  There is also a Children's Garden, although the Jungle area seems enough to please most children.
There are also information displays throughout the conservatory and some of the outer buildings.  I noticed that there are many signs about doing things like gardening roses environmentally and the concerns about water conservation and distribution.  Many plants were labeled as endangered, including Echinacea, which is an all-natural plant used to boost the immune system during cold & flu season.  There was also a display about the "CSI" of finding out what happened during the Irish potato blight!

One of the nicer things about the Garden is that right in the middle of downtown, there are plenty of seats in the middle of beautiful and fragrant environs for the average commuter working in the Capitol to sit and eat lunch.
On a quirky note, the writer in me wonders why all the political drama movies that have secret meetings never occurred in the Conservatory, or a studio copycat of it.  It really would be such a neat place to arrange a "secret" meeting.
For those of you that are in downtown area around lunchtime, think about packing your lunch and bringing it there to eat.  You'll find yourself enjoying your lunch and tempted to wander inside!