Places - Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens

Guys, don't forget to make spring break plans when you can.
I literally never make any plans until the day of when no one can go with me so I always end up stuck in Houston. And to be honest, since I've lived here for 4 years, there isn't much for me to go discover.
Especially during spring break since all you can go is drive to the closest beach - Galveston and do nothing at all then drive for an hour till you go home.
Don't be like me.
Plan your trips.

Anyways,
if you're stuck in Houston or if you are here visiting, I think Houston has a fair trade of places that doesn't involve food or eating. Let's be honest, when in Houston, and I do mean Houston, not Katy, not Woodlands, just what says Houston on the GPS, there's not a lot of places that don't revolve around food. Of course except from your obvious like zoos and parks and speciality locations.
Other than that, this is a pretty nice place to stuff your face and gain that extra 50 lbs. LOL

Out of all seriousness, I don't know if I would consider Houston to be my favorite city because ever since I've been here, I've literally packed on about 10 - 12 lbs and since it's literally impossible for me to resist food, I really don't think I'll ever shake the weight off. Oh well, everything's bigger in Texas... even Tami.

Alright,
For me, spring time is the best time to go out and take Instagram worthy shots. All you really need is a handy photographer (basically anyone who agrees to go with you), a car (because let's be completely honest, if you don't have a car in Houston, you will either end up wasting insane amounts of money on transportation or be stuck in one place for your whole entire trip), money (sometimes?), and of course, an idea of where you should be headed.
To me, Houston is such a wide spread of different locations that can provide you with decent backgrounds for your Instagram shots.
However,
Nothing screams spring like flowers, am I right?

Well since you can't really walk around and take random photos in front of people's houses with their bushes, I would recommend you try out the Bayou Bend garden. The full name is in the title but since you want flowers, the only thing you would want to know about is their garden.
The place is closed on mondays as far as I know so plan your trip accordingly. Also, they sometimes are closed for special events which are posted on the website because I know there's nothing worse than planning your whole day and then it doesn't happen the way it was supposed to.

When I went, there was a special event so you have to buy tickets to everything (house tour as well) which cost a little bit more (I believe it was around $25 for 2 people) than normal days where you can just buy an entrance ticket to the garden, obviously a bit cheaper ($5-$6 per person).
Surprisingly I did not have to fight for parking like I usually do literally everywhere that is an attraction so that's already a big plus.
HOWEVER, the only entrance is across a bridge.
I HATE HEIGHTS. I'm very very paranoid and I think anything will probably kill me. When I first saw the bridge I thought it was sturdy and would not give me a mini heart attack.OH BOY WAS I WRONG. DEAD WRONG.
Even though the bridge looks very safe, I was shaking like hell when I walked across it and NO it wasn't because of my heavy weight if you were wondering. It actually wasn't as stable as I thought it would be. I couldn't run across because that would just make it shaky even more and there was no other entrance so guess I had to suck it up and walk it like a grown woman. Chicken problems :(


The first thing you see after you cross the bridge is a booth for the person who pops out to check if you have a sticker on.

Then after the booth,

So totally worth the whole bridge crossing situation right?




I believe the garden is relatively small so I did not grab a map, since there was no way I would get lost here and I guess it does seem like a better plan to go around and discover the place.
Since literally everyone was turning left, I figured why not do the same, so I took a left turn and saw this,



Very extremely pretty and there were just benches everywhere so you could just probably casually sit and chill, or pose.


I'm not sure when the best time to come and visit the garden is but I think personally maybe march would be a good time to plan a trip since April it rains a bit more and towards the summer, Houston or Texas in general isn't that much pleasant at all to be strolling around under the sun.


The flowers were all in full bloom and the colors were truly unbeatable.

Since there are benches in front of the flowers, It totally makes sense for one to sit and pose constantly right?
I mean isn't that what benches were invented for? Posing for instagram photos? Pretty sure that's more accurate than just for sitting and resting your feet. 
Personally, I liked the left side of the statue better (so if you were standing directly in front of the statue, it would be on the right) because behind the bench is bright pink flowers that make the best photo.



So the only thing I think this garden is missing compared to my favorite Dallas Arboretum is maybe restaurants or maybe just a cute little coffee place. I understand since it is a museum in a way, it wouldn't seem right? But one can hope right?

If you end up purchasing the whole package which allows you to go into the house like I did, you would see that the brother's "bachelor" corner had the best view since it's on the second floor looking directly towards the garden in front of the house. The house wasn't my favorite part because instead of getting to walk around freely (I don't mind the ropes in front of the rooms to protect the furniture) but the staff literally tell you where to go and you can't skip anything without them pushing you into that direction before you can continue on. I thought that was a rather odd way to doing things but that's just my 2 cents.

The view directly in front of the house.

The garden was rather small as when you leave the house, you'll see this beautiful path of bright pink flowers and lovely pink tulips that one cannot simply resist the urge to photograph it.

Wishing the ground wasn't wet so I could sit instead of awkwardly standing. LOL



Seriously, the tulips are such an incredible addition and since nothing goes well with pink like pink right?

Behind the bunch you'll see this path with more pink flowers. My height doesn't really fit or else it would've made the perfect background for photos. Oh how very sad. Instead, I totally didn't have to run ahead, look at the flowers and pretend to casual stroll. I promise I didn't... or did I?

In my opinion, the flowers don't vary that much but honestly who would complain because they are absolutely beautiful.

I believe that if you keep walking past this section of pink flowers, you'll end up going to a "white" garden. I wouldn't necessary call it a garden because it was more like a small circle. Nonetheless is was still very pretty.



Perfect since I was wearing all white right?
Again, there was a place to turn in that had chairs and very cute steps but since it had too many people, I couldn't take any photos at the steps. BooHoo.

Who could resist sitting photos? LOL
Ok, So that was a lot of photos for such a tiny place but I have to say, I am so extremely happy that Houston actually has a place like this and for gardens, I think for now this would have to be of course, one of my favorite places to go to.
I believe that everyone gets a coupon of 20% off for the store but personally, I didn't find anything I really liked except for some bars of soap that looked so cute. Sadly I didn't purchase it however.

Since the garden is located in a very busy neighborhood, I doubt that you won't be able to find a near by restaurant for some food. Which makes up for the fact that there isn't any where to eat inside the garden (that I know of)

If possible I think it's so much better to go on a weekday around noon, when it's quite sunny and there's not a lot of people if you want good photos.
Till next time, creepy bridge that I hate.








All for now,


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