The National Arboretum

At first we were thinking of going back to the National Mall for the first time since we moved to Maryland, but in stead opted for a visit to the National Arboretum at Hans' suggestion.

Now that the cooler fall weather is finally here, it grants the opportunity to get away from civilization, and with 446 acres to play with and the tourist season winding down, the park is a great option for us.

We only saw one corner of the Arboretum today, starting with the traditional knot herb garden and nearby vegetable herb gardens, which offered plenty of color even though most of the flowers have already faded.  Ornamental peppers seemed to be the main feature though there were some interesting collections of plants historically used to as dyes or for their industrial-use chemicals (like one that was used for its epoxy acid production).

Explosion of color

See pods of a tree native to southwest China

In the knot herb garden

The highlight of our visit was probably the impressive collection of bonsai trees.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves:

This bonsai has been "in training" since 1625!

Across the meadow from the knot garden were a peculiar assemblage of tall Corinthian columns.  It turns out they are the original sandstone columns from the front of the Capitol Building that were replaced in the 1950's with marble ones (there was an oversight when it was first built and the dome overhung the rest of the building until it was extended slightly).

For the last part of our visit we climbed the gentle paths on Mount Hamilton (I snorted quietly to myself at this label).  The hill is planted with many varieties of azalea, so we'll have to return in the spring.  At the top of the hill there was a very faint clearing from which we could see the Capitol Building about 3 miles away and some of the other monuments of the mall, so we sort of killed two birds with one stone today :)