"In the Garden" (Sonnenberg)

For those who are keeping track, today (August 7th, 2012) is Josh's and my second anniversary!

Of course, when I decided to visit Josh down here at his workplace in Pennsylvania, I selflessly opted to leave my laptop at home to limit any distractions. I'm now left with no way to get the pictures of us from my camera to the blog! Josh, however, assured me that he wouldn't be terribly hurt if Travel Tuesday went off as planned and I posted about our blissful two years tomorrow :-)

 

Today I'll be posting about a little adventure I took with my family not thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean, but right in my home state of New York. Expect a whole post about living like a tourist in your homeland soon!

These pictures were taken in the lovely Sonnenberg Gardens in Canandaigua, NY--barely an hour from our Rochester apartment.

Title is from the hymn of the same name by Charles Austin Miles.

The first garden we happened upon in Sonnenberg was styled after a traditional Japanese garden. The oriental accents seemed very accurate and transported me on what felt like my first trip to Asia. There was a pond full of water lilies and koi, stone pagodas, and even a bridge leading to a Japanese "temple."

A koi, of course

And a pagoda. What else? :-)

The Buddha himself

The other beautiful garden at Sonnenberg was a traditional Italian garden with ivory columns, tile roofs, Renaissance sculptures, and countless other Roman accents.



More pics of the Italian Garden after the jump!

An out of commission Roman bathhouse

My mom wanted to get married here, but was too paranoid about rain :-(

You know how I feel about fountains ;-)

These collapsed pillars used to support a temple to the goddess Diana

But the statue of the goddess herself has been moved to a safe place

These stairs lead into the mansion at the Sonnenberg estate, but that's another post

Happy Anniversary, baby :-)