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A Garden Like No Other By Andrea Gross Photos by Irv Green unless otherwise noted
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take one look at the Tree Top Adventure—an activity that will have me walking across swinging bridges and soaring along a zip-line—and almost wimp out. But there's a boy who looks to be about 8 in front of me and a woman who says she's 80 behind me. Trapped between 8 and 80, I decide to go forward. Soon I’m flying through the air, 30 feet above the forest floor. Below me are the 13,000 acres that comprise Georgia’s Callaway Gardens, an oasis with resort amenities and a mission that speaks to my heart. We were at Callaway Gardens for two days before we 24
June 2012 | www.primemontgomery.com
slowed down enough to learn its story. First we had to explore its other attractions: • Robin Lake, which is surrounded by the world’s largest manmade beach; • the Butterfly Center, where hundreds of winged creatures flutter soundlessly in one of the nation’s largest glass-enclosed tropical butterfly conservatories; • the vegetable garden that serves as the southern setting for the PBS television show, The Victory Garden; • the Azalea Bowl, which in the spring blazes with 40 acres of brilliantly colored foliage;