smelling the flowers at the Palmer Museum & Visitors Center

a year ago exactly
Palmer Museum & Visitors Center

I love where I live. The little historic farming community of Palmer is just an amazing place to live year round, and to raise a family. It was even voted "the best place to raise kids in Alaska" in a 2013 Bloomberg article, and for good reason. It truly is a close-knit community filled with families who have been living, farming and homesteading here since the 1930's, when the Matanuska Valley was colonized during President Roosevelt's New Deal.

I know I've mentioned all this before, but I'm reminded of it every spring and summer when I spend hours and hours every week just hanging out in downtown Palmer. It's the kind of downtown where you can just walk and walk and run into friends and chat and eat ice cream and walk some more. There is wide open spaces and parks are everywhere meaning it's very kid friendly as well.

One of our favorite places to visit when we're walking around town is the Palmer Museum & Visitors Center across from the Library, specifically the gardens there. There is just this little enclosed area filled with rows and rows of flowers and vegetables and rock gardens and flowering trees and it's just gorgeous. I love that I can stroll at a leisurely pace around the beds, taking in all the beauty around me without having to watch Riggs too closely. He loves walking 'around and around' (as he says) through all the beds and especially loves watching the bees that congregate in mass numbers on all the flowering shrubs and trees.

If you live in the Valley and especially Palmer I highly suggest a visit, and while you're there be sure to stroll around and enjoy the lovely atmosphere of downtown Palmer. I find that when I need to get out of the house and don't know what to do, it's always a great idea to just go downtown, park and wander around. It's always enjoyable plus there's plenty of coffee shops and bakery's and even gelato for when you get hungry (or need to keep a toddler happy ha).

I'll leave you with this bathroom selfie I took at the visitors center just because. I swear I look in the mirror and still get surprised to see that big belly!

PS: if you live in Anchorage and want to enjoy some fun garden time
with the kids be sure to visit the Alaska Botanical Gardens this weekend
for the Boreal Garden & Arts Fest!