Let There Be Lights

Monday and Tuesday were spent in Callaway Gardens. That trip was to see their Fantasy in Lights and to check out the gardens for a possible future trip when the azaleas are in bloom. Wednesday we went to Bellingrath Gardens to see their lights. We also stopped at a fabric store in Pensacola on the way to Bellingrath. It worked out nicely for Penny since we hit just about all of her favorite things—lights, birds, butterflies, taking pictures of plants and flowers and, of course, quilting.

I enjoyed the lights at both gardens.

Callaway Gardens is a large facility with an associated resort (golf/swimming/tennis/spa/lodging). The gardens surround man-made lakes and have hiking trails camping and a 10-mile bike path. There is a discovery center containing artwork, sculptures and information about wildlife in the area. Next to that is their birds of prey area where free-flight shows are conducted in warmer weather. There is also a large butterfly house a horticultural center and a chapel.

We originally planned on driving up seeing the gardens, catching the lights that evening and driving back home the next day. We did all that except we ended up going back to the gardens on day 2. There was just too much to cover in 1 day.

Here are some Callaway pictures:

This is an artificial flower constructed completely out of copper

The butterfly house

the horticultural center

a chapel in the woods

 At Callaway the light show was a drive through show that lasted almost an hour. We rode a trolley and it was freezing cold. Bellingrath’s light show was a walk through with weather warm enough to shed your jacket. We didn’t get any good pictures of the Callaway lights. It was impossible to do in the moving vehicle. We did get lots of pictures of Bellingrath. Here are a few.

 

We had gotten to Bellingrath early and we left about 7PM. Lots of people were just arriving and the road into the gardens was bumper to bumper. It was like the final scene in the movie Field of Dreams with car headlights for miles along the road approaching the attraction. Bellingrath proves that if you build it they will come!

Both attractions are well done.  Callaway claims they use 8 million lights and 40,000ft of cable for the audio alone.  They begin setup in Sep for the light show.  They didn't skimp anywhere on the lights.  Bellingrath does a great job for the size of their gardens and they don't skimp either.  I believe we got our money's worth for each place.
 Today is Christmas Eve and we just got back from the childrens liturgy mass.  No Christmas Pagent this year.  We are going next door tomorrow for Christmas dinner. 

Merry Christmas!