A Walk in Cantigny Park: Part 1

This past Sunday, my sister's family and I went to the annual Buddy Walk in Cantigny Park in Wheaton, Illinois.  From their website, "The Buddy Walk^® was established in 1995 by the National Down Syndrome Society to celebrate Down syndrome Awareness Month in October and to promote acceptance and inclusion of people with Down syndrome."  My sister and her family attends every year and I was happy to be visiting during this year's walk.  We had the most perfect weather for the walk, a sunny 83F degrees!

 

My sister's eldest has Down Syndrome so this walk is near and dear to our hearts. The walk is about a mile long and it raises millions of dollars for local and national programs for children and adults with Down Syndrome.

The Buddy Walk in the Chicago area takes place at Cantigny Park.  Cantigny is a sprawling 500 acre public park and recreation area left by Colonel Robert R. McCormick, the former owner and publisher of the Chicago Tribune.  The grounds was formerly his farm estate and upon McCormick's death was turned into a park.  The grounds is spectacular, it includes a golf course, greenhouse, museum, and truly amazing gardens (a formal garden, a rose garden, an idea garden, and a prairie garden).  The park is a beautiful place to host a Buddy Walk.

I was surprised to see that there were hundreds of roses in bloom! It was such a spectacular treat for the senses.  It smelled and looked just amazing!

Roses of every color and type were on display!  How I wish my roses could grow like these!  They were so healthy and lush.

One of my favorite parts of the rose garden was this beautiful water feature display.  It was 3 large flower pots with a fountain in each of them.  It was beautiful.

The grounds had lots of gorgeous pergolas.  I love gardening structures and this one was so pretty.

I definitely would love a pergola one day.  What a nice place to sit and enjoy the surrounding scenery.

I took a lot more photos of the other gardens, to be posted in Part 2.