This is a great time for bug-lovers at the Tucson Botanical Gardens.
The Gardens are way more kid-friendly than you might think. Wide paths weave through a variety of garden spaces, so kids can move freely and run around just about everywhere except the cactus garden (too prickly for comfort).
This time of year there aren’t any crowds to worry about, especially at the after-hours Twilight Thursdays, 5-8 p.m. Thursdays til Sept 29.
Cost: Twilight Thursdays costs $9 for adults and $5 for kids and comes with a coupon for $5 off a $10 purchase at the gift shop. You can get $5 admission if you show your Pokemon Go app. Save even more with a 2-for-1 admission coupon using the Tucson Attractions Passport.
Things to do: Little kids will love pushing buttons to bring a model train to life, raking the sand in the zen garden, and playing in a sandbox.
For big kids, there are huge sculptures that make fun poses for photos and several PokeStops too. Amaze your mini-me with your knowledge of Pokemon’s roots in the popular Japanese pastime of bug collecting.
On a recent Thursday, the most fun was watching bugs in the wildflower garden near the center of the Gardens. (map) The small blooming field was alive with butterflies, dragonflies, beetles and all sorts of buzzing things.
Take pictures of the kids with butterfly wings.
You’ll collect something nice for Instagram.
It’s funny to watch the shiny green fig beetles at the big shady Black Mission Fig tree at the entrance near the gift shop. These little gluttons will do anything to Eat! More! Figs! and their crazed dog-piles on the fruit get too heavy and cause them to plop onto the ground. Expect to squeal a little as they buzz around you and maybe even bump into you, but don’t worry, they’re totally harmless. (For kids who don’t like bugs, this area could be scary, but you can still show them the beetles in smaller numbers in other places in the Gardens.)
There are a lot of places to find shade, or cool off in the art gallery or gift shop spaces.
Bring: Camera. Wear jeans not shorts to avoid bug bites. (Yep, we learned the hard way.) There are drinking fountains, but you’ll want a water bottle and a snack, too.
Buy: The gift shop is stocked with cool and affordable stuff to stock up on for kid-parties or stocking stuffers.
Compass $4, plant pencil with bug eraser $2, wind-up beetle $2.50.
