Cullen Gardens in Whitby

We drove to Whitby near Oshawa, ON, today to visit Cullen Gardens. We picked up our friends, Joe & Ernestine at 7:30AM and arrived at 9:30AM, via the great 401. Our friends had never heard of the place and Joe is a great gardener and loves flowers. Cullen Gardens was in tip top shape as they are celebrating their 25th anniversay and Whitby is celebrating 150 years as a town. The Garden is famous for it's miniature village. Ernestine was amazed when she saw it - she pictured rows of flowers in various gardens. If you have never been there, please visit their web site at www.cullengardens.com. You can walk the gardens in approximately 2 hours - there are lots of shady paths and the Wildflower Park and Bird Sanctuary is cool and tranquil and the pathway is like walking on a carpet. There is stuff for kids to do, e.g, 2 splash pools. The miniature garden has 160 buildings with little people and cars - there is a train track with several trains chugging around. There is even a little campground and lake with motorized boats in the water. Summer flowers were everywhere and lots of topiary and a magnificient floral peacock ( they also have a cage with real peacocks and fuzzy little babies - so cute )- I could go on and on. Our friends were delighted. After leaving, we drove into Oshawa, had lunch as the shopping centre and drove by where we lived in 1966, and General Motors where my hubby worked and the hospital where our daughter was born. We headed for home on the 401, but traffic was so heavy, we got off at Port Hope and took the scenic route home through all the little towns and villages,to name a few, Cobourg, Brighton, Picton - where we took the ferry boat across - and home by 5:00PM.
It was a lovely warm day - and were totally surprised to turn on the TV news to discover a storm had brewed in Toronto around 3:30 PM causing an airplane from France to slip on the landing strip at Pearson airport and end up in a gulley a few feet from the 401, and catch fire. All 296 passengers and crew members escaped and one of the passengers thought the plane might have been struck by lightening. Luckily, we were on our way home and missed the storm.
Enjoyment: Looking at summer flowers!