I know my blog 99.99 percent of the time focuses on food but another true passion of mine is travel. Since some of Cooking Inside the Lines’ readers may not be in Austin (Nakiya I’m waiting on you to come down to the ATX!), I thought I would share a wonderful little adventure David and I had this morning at Zilker Botanical Garden to encourage you to visit the next time you come to town or if you do live in our wonderful city and have never been…GO. In a nutshell, from the website:

Zilker Botanical Garden is located on 31 acres of varied topography on the south bank of the Colorado River near downtown Austin. Its diverse topography is especially suited to depicting different habitats and displaying an array of native, hybrid and exotic plants. The Garden is the centerpiece of Zilker Park and the Town Lake (Colorado River) corridor and is its most extensively used facility. Over 300,000 people annually visit the gardens from across Texas and the U.S., as well as over 100 countries.

I’ve lived here for four years now and have never visited the ZBG…what a horrible thing to miss! This was so serene, educational (come on now in a fun way) and beautiful. I can’t wait to go back in the spring to see everything in bloom. If you are coming to Austin be sure to stop by this tucked away treasure right near downtown. Of course, pictures always tell a story better and this is just from a part of the park (all pics taken on my iPhone with the Hipstamatic app).