You know those moments in life that are surprisingly pleasant? Like when you drag your spouse somewhere and he actually enjoys himself, or you dread going someplace and then you are very glad that you did, or you take your 2-year-old somewhere and just hope he doesn't throw a tantrum and you actually enjoy yourself?

The starry night picture to the right actually captures one of those moments for me. At the spur of the moment last July, I loaded the kids in the car and headed for the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. That is not a place you would normally think to take kids, but they were having an exhibit by Niki de Saint Phalle. In her lifetime, she created huge outdoor sculptures, not easily breakable by small children. The kids can climb on the sculptures, and they are truly like nothing you have ever seen.

Going downtown always presents a parking problem. Either you can't find a space OR you will pay a small fortune for that space. We found a free parking space in the garden's parking lot-go figure.

It was about 95 degrees that day so most people did not venture out in the heat of the day. That is where being a native Atlantan comes in handy. The heat doesn't bother me nearly as much as it does the Mid-Atlantic transplants ("If you can't take the heat, get out of Atlanta", I always say). SO, the place was not crowded at all. Just enough people to make it feel right.

The kids were climbing all over the place, having a blast. The starry night picture was actually taken inside of this huge 12 foot skull where the temperature was about, no kidding, 20 degrees cooler. So, we sat inside it for awhile.

Then, we headed to the children's garden which had very cool sprinklers for the kids to play in.

After they were exhausted, we headed home...We all had a blast!