Bayou Bend House and Gardens

Once upon a time, there was a woman in Texas named Ima Hogg. She was the daughter of a wealthy Texas governor, and she spent her life as a philanthropist, musician, and collector. She lived with her brothers in a big fancy house filled with fancy antique furniture, surrounded by big fancy gardens.

When she died, she left her estate, Bayou Bend, to the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Today, you can go tour it and see all the pretty things! A couple weeks ago, I bought a Groupon for two tickets to Bayou Bend's "Sip & Stroll" tour. On the Sip & Stroll tour days, you get a couple little glasses of wine and some snacks (pretzels and cheese and grapes), and then you can go on a self-guided tour of the house and gardens.

The tour started with a walk across Buffalo Bayou on a quaint little bridge.

Once we made it across the bridge, we could see all the beautiful gardens and the house in the distance. It was such a beautiful day when we went, and we really enjoyed wandering through the property with our wine! The gardens were magnificent:

Butterfly Garden!

We did the house tour first (because you couldn't take food/drinks into the house), and it was beautiful too! SO many lovely furnishings and beautifully decorated rooms.

This is the one picture I took inside the house before I realized that photography wasn't allowed. Oops.

A "sleeping porch" (adjacent to the bedrooms) that overlooks the gardens

After the house tour, we grabbed a couple glasses of wine and wandered through the gardens. 

I could almost reach that branch with my head! Haha.

There were so many beautiful flowers...

There was so many cute little bridges and fences and benches and streams...

Jeff (who is always dreaming up new ideas for our backyard) looked at all the different plants and trees...

Jeff really likes azaleas.

It was a beautiful place. Ima Hogg must've loved living here!

After we had seen pretty much everything, we went back to the house for a second little glass of wine. On our way, we saw this pretty tree with a two white trunks in the distance and knew we had to go look at it!

See how pretty it is?

That's Jeff sitting at the bottom of the tree (it was a HUGE tree!).

We sat in the middle of the tree and just relaxed for a while. Such a beautiful view!

As the sun started to set, we made our way back to the little bridge to go home. 

Goodbye, Bayou Bend!

If you're in Houston, you've got to see this place! It's just beautiful (and it's the perfect time of year to go!). I'd highly recommend the Thursday Sip & Stroll tour. :) We got two tickets for $10 with the Groupon, but regular tickets are $10 each (which I still think is a great deal!). 

Sigh. I'm pretty sure my dream house would look something like this place.