McKee Jungle Gardens.....

Sunday morning started with a wonderful some-cooked breakfast. Then we headed off to an arts and crafts show. There was some really pretty things...and some lovely wood crafts. You never know if artist have a problem with you taking pictures, so I don't. After strolling through we headed to Mckee Jungle Gardens...a beautiful place.....this used to be 80 acres, but is now only 18...but is still a lovely "walk in the woods".

The entrance was lovely..

The entrance is beautiful....

The beautiful outdoor kitchen where they cooked when parties were happening in the gardens...100 steaks could be cooked at one time....

This gorgeous building was built in 1941.....and was used for many gatherings and parties.

This 38' long table, made of a single piece of mahogeny wood, could seat 100.....now that's a party!!!
The inside was gorgeous....

The men behind the gardens....Arthur had the "plant" mind behind the ideas and Waldo had many ideas, including monkeys....yes, they had monkeys at one time, but when the gardens closed, they had to find them another home. When the gardens re-opened, it was decided not to bring them back.

After spending some time in "The Hall of Giants"...we moved on to the gardens.

There was a dinosaur theme going on....they were done very well...

He was a big one....

It's hard to see this glass tower, but it was very pretty and would catch the sun light just right..

He was cool behind the tree, but got really big as we got closer...

These snakes were about the only live animals we saw.....yuck!!

I felt like I was in the movie Jurassic Park!! See the babies with their big Mama??

I really like Bamboo and the Bamboo Pavilion was very cool

It was beuatiful...it's 529 sq feet, nearly 350 stems of bamboo with each piece being 18 to 24 feet long, and 3-4 inches in diameter. The roof is over 9,000 Sabal palm fronds and the construction was supervised by Seminole Indian Chief  Leroy Osceola to ensure authenticity. 

Loved these plants growing out of the bamboo...

 I learnd there are over 1,000 types of bamboo, Mckee gardens has about 2 dozens types. All bamboo is either "running", can take over your backyard, or "clumping", which gets bushy but stays where its planted. Some species can grow 1 inch per hour.....wow!!

You could really see the different types of bamboo...they were gorgeous.

Then we were back to Dino World....

Then we saw these nature inspired  constructions....

Inside looking up....pretty neat.

What an odd plant....

Our last dino....the grounds had been beautiful, the dinosaurs interesting but it was time to head back to our coast....

Thanks so much Floyd and Marilyn we had a terrific visit....we'll be back!!!