North Shore Wanderings - Day 3 - Part 2

After our brisk morning walk down by the water we decided to find somewhere warm to pass the time. We came across the Thunder Bay Botanical Conservatory while we were looking for places to go. But we hadn't saved directions for it, so were not totally sure how to get there.

 We had passed a Thrift Store on the main road through town on our way to the island, so we went back there to check it out.

 After doing some shopping, the kind employees gave us some verbal directions of how to get to the conservatory, and we managed to get there without out any issues :) 

There were only a few people milling about and it didn't look like much on the outside, but we were anxious to check it out anyway.

As soon as we stepped in the door we were hit by a rush of warm air followed by the sweet scent of fresh flowers. We were immediately in love with this place!

Pathways run all throughout the building allowing visitors to meander through the foliage and get right up close.

The leaves on this tree were massive!!

I loved the bright colors of these leaves, it was unbelievable!

This was the first time I'd seen a lemon growing on a real tree, it was crazy to think I'd see one for the first time in Canada of all places ;p

Thunder Bay is famous for their local Amethyst mines, It was so neat seeing them put to use here in the rock art throughout the conservatory.

This grapefruit tree was what I geeked out about the most, I wish I could have picked that and eaten it right then and there!

They had an entire room of succulents, I couldn't get over how huge some of them were!

These fluffy flowers reminded me of the clover in Horton Hears a Who ;p haha

Eucalyptus! I found some leaves that had fallen on the ground and rubbed them in my hands. They smelled sooo good! Too bad there wasn't a koala hiding up in that tree ;)

COFFEE!!

These leaves were seriously tiny, I didn't know leaves that small even existed!

We just sat and took the place in for a little longer before heading out. This was one of those places I gladly would have stayed all day :)

Even the water fountain had some Amethysts! 

We were fascinated by this hanging basket that was entirely made out of leaves!

Visiting this conservatory was definitely a highlight for us both and we were so glad we found it! By the time we were ready to go, the sun had come out outside and it was beginning to warm up into a nice temperature. So we decided to head downtown and see what other shops and cool places we could find to check out! More on that in the next post :)