We had a long leisurely Sunday breakfast and relaxed in our RV before we started out.
It was started in 1978 when Linda and John Anderson hired Master Craftsman Hoichi Kurisu, who had designed the Portland, Oregon Japanese Gardens, to design a large Japanese garden for their home. They enjoyed it so much that they donated it to the city of Rockford in 1998 for all to enjoy and see. It comprises 12 acres and includes a large pond with turtles, lily pads, and koi, a 5-story waterfall, a granite pagoda, curving bridges over hidden streams and flowers and plants throughout.
It contains the three essential aspects of a Japanese garden, rocks for permanence, plants for texture and color and water for its soothing reflections and sounds. We got there later than we should have since we got ther at 2:30 and it closes at 4:00. We wandered around, following the prescribed path but also taking some detours to catch some of the statuary, plants and rocks hidden around Obviously, there are a lot of details that one might not see keeping on the main path.
Looks like Gary found a serene resting spot.
However, rather than describing all that we saw, I’ll let my pictures tell the story. Note the pattern raked into the sand around a small guest house below.
It was a delightful place to spend time and we wish that we had more. And, as it happened, we had even less than we had thought. We felt the sprinkles, we saw their pattern on the ground and began to walk a bit faster. As the rain turned from mist to sprinkles to a light rain, our feet moved from stroll to walk to stride as we tried to see the rest of the gardens before the deluge. But the rain only increased the beauty of the gardens adding both sound and texture with its soft patter and its ripples in the water. We hardly saw the water fall but we passed by it and stopped to enjoy the rush of water before we hurried on to our car in the parking lot.
Our next stop had been to walk the river path and we thought we’d head that way in the off chance that the rain might stop, which it did. Shucks, we said, the rain had called our bluff and now we had to walk. Very nice path along the Rock River and many were out to enjoy it. My first stop was to find a bathroom and we found one in the ice house where there was a ‘hot’ hockey game. All ages, and both sexes were playing on teams. In the audience were those in down jackets, mittens and knit caps alongside those in shorts and t-shirts and sneakers.
Gary is standing next to the Rock People who are guarding the Rock River in Rockford. (And, I thought he was the hard-headed one.) This is one of the statues along the path by the river.
We walked the path, enjoyed the river sights and came home.
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