Spring Garden Tour 2012 (aka Too Hot to Handle)

A post from April 22, 2012 that wasn't posted for lack of pictures. The camera went missing for a bit.

A few years back, my mum, grandmother and I took the garden tour. It is put on by the Modesto Garden Club every year (which I found out today is the largest garden club in the US....who knew?). Last time we took the tour the weather was a little warm and I was wearing the wrong shoes. By the end of the day I was pretty uncomfortable and, towards the end, it made for a somewhat miserable trip. This was unfortunate because some of the homes chosen to be on the tour that year were homes in Modesto that I had always secretly spied on from afar and was now afforded the luxury of seeing them up close.
When my grandmother wanted to know if I was interested in going again this year I thought I would give it another go and made sure to wear the right shoes and the right clothes so that I wouldn't make the same mistake as before.
The valley has had a pretty mild spring. Just last week temperatures were more like those that you would find in the winter months. Just the day before yesterday it was only 75 degrees, today it was 92.
It started out well enough, the walk wasn't all that unpleasant and some of the gardens were lovely. I was able to realize another dream today as well.
When my brother and I were younger my mother would treat us to frozen yogurt and then would drive us around the older neighborhoods in town while we licked our cookies and cream or chocolate mousse and we would gawk at all the beautiful homes and wonder what it would be like if we actually lived in them. Every time we did this my brother and I would beg our mother to take us to the 'castle'. There is a house in Modesto that looks just like a castle. It is made of brick, has turrets and a massive front door. If my brother and I dreamed of living anywhere in town, this house was it.
This house was on the tour today and I was able to finally see it up close. I strolled past the koi pond, skipped around the tiled swimming pool and ate cookies by the outdoor fireplace. It really was a silly old dream come true.
After that, things started to go downhill pretty quickly.
I began to not feel well. I made the mistake of staying up a little too late the night before at a party and the next morning didn't give myself enough time to eat breakfast or to properly hydrate myself. I began to pay the price for it. I tried to fight through it because there was no way that I could complain to my mother or my grandmother. I was the youngest one there, I couldn't be the first to wimp out. We made it through the first leg of the tour (and I swear that we were the only ones that actually walked the whole thing) and stopped at the Yogurt Mill to cool down. I knew it was worse than I had thought it was when I wasn't able to finish my treat. At the next house, I didn't go in and waited in the car...I was no longer sweating...uh oh.
Luckily my mum recognized how miserable I had become and took me home. I ended up sleeping through the rest of the tour and the rest of the afternoon.....ugh, I'm pretty pathetic.
Maybe next year I'll get it together so that I don't embarrass my mother and my grandmother.

(The 'Castle' on Magnolia)