Somewhat surprisingly the budding naturalists had yet to visit the Bloedel Reserve – so visiting we went.

We were greeted with a gorgeous meadow.

A walk past the bird refuge and through the woods opens to an impressive pond in front of the visitor center, originally the Bloedel residence.

The views from the back yard are stunning. We saw an adult Bald Eagle perched on a tree and moments later a juvenile flew from nest to perch.

From the visitor center, we viewed the waterfall …

… made our way to the Japanese garden …

… and walked through the moss and reflection gardens.

During our visit we were unfortunately surrounded by loud-talking-brochure-reading biddies which spoiled the experience a bit – reflecting back the Reserve is really amazing – I’m excited for fall.