When I woke up this morning, the windchill was -2 degrees. That is not my kind of weather. This summer girl cannot cope when it's that bitterly cold out.

So when my best friend suggested we spend the afternoon at the nice, warm and humid U.S. Botanic Garden, I was all about it.



I'd never been to the botanic garden before, and it's one of the few government-run attractions that's still open despite the shutdown. (Yes, we're officially at the one-month mark, oh joy!)

When we walked inside from out in the freezing, freezing cold, we stepped right in to the Tropics room. Before we could even notice all the gorgeous plants, we were shrugging our coats off because it was so warm and toasty.

It definitely felt like I had been transported straight to the tropics, and I was loving it.



I couldn't believe how many plants and trees there were growing in the conservatory and how massive some of them were. All the plants were so lush and green, and there were gorgeous purple orchids lining the walkways.

We spent the most amount of time in the Tropics room. It was by far our favorite, but we also wandered through some of the other rooms in the conservatory.

The Desert was filled with all different kinds of cacti.





There was one room that had ancient plants and was sprinkled with dinosaurs hidden among the shrubs and trees.





We also strolled through the Mediterranean room, which was much cooler and more temperate than the tropics, and the orchid room, which had so many varieties of the flowers.



We ended up hanging out on one of the benches in the tropics room until the conservatory closed. It was so nice to feel like we were transported away from winter and to the warmth of the tropics.



It was the perfect way to spend a cold afternoon, and it was a fun experience seeing all the plants and flowers that normally grow all over the world, but we have the fortune of being able to see right in our backyard.