This is a very belated post since sunflowers are long gone by now, but I still wanted to share our sunflower field experience at Dorothea Dix Park. Prior to this year, sunflowers were next to the greenway along Old Baucom Road in Southeast Raleigh and not intended for the public. Due to popular demands and hundreds of people ignoring the warnings, the field was moved to Dorothea Dix Park this past summer and opened to the public to safely enjoy. We first visited beginning of July then again in mid-late July. We were told mid July would be the peak of sunflowers, but due to NC’s sweltering weather, sunflowers were already wilting on our second visit. If you are planning on visiting next summer, make sure to go in the beginning of July!
When we heard about the sunflower field at Dorothea Dix Park, of course we couldn’t miss the perfect photo opp! Unfortunately, we weren’t lucky this year. We were sure Em would LOVE the sunflowers since she is obsessed with all flowers, but she wasn’t a fan. The first time we visited, the weather was perfect except for the mud. It had rained the day before and while it wasn’t sweltering hot and actually enjoyable with breeze in July, we couldn’t get too far into the field due to muddy ground. I don’t know why we didn’t think to wear rain boots, lessons learned for next time! Em’s immediate reaction when seeing the sunflowers from afar was excitement. However, as she got closer, her reaction did a 180 and she definitely was not a fan. She said she didn’t like the black middle part of the flower and bumblebees buzzing inside the flowers did not help the situation. We did the best we could and took some pictures, but as you can see, from where we were, sunflowers weren’t even facing the camera. But our newly married couple visiting from Chicago are super duper cute in these photos! <3
So we called it a day and decided to come back next time when it wasn’t so muddy (and hoping Em would like the flowers, wishful thinking). The next time around was a couple of weeks after our first visit. The weather was much hotter but the lighting was PERFECT. The best time to go for great lighting is around 6:30/7pm! Steve and I were super hopeful about our photos except Em had an opposite idea. She had a complete meltdown. I’m talking screaming, ugly crying, refusing to go near the sunflowers. I’ll spare you the not-so-cute-candid pictures. Alas, second time around wasn’t any better, but we were able to capture pure joy of this cutie pie in the wildflowers as we were leaving the field. She went from terrified, screaming child to let me frolic in this field of wildflowers hippie child. Hey, I’m just glad our second trip to the field wasn’t a complete waste despite my melted makeup face and a messy bun.
When we were leaving the field, Em held my hand and said, “Mommy, next time I’m going to be brave with the sunflowers!”. It totally melted my heart!! Although our visits didn’t quite turn out like we had imagined, we were able to make a fun memory out of them! While Em is still a baby needing a lot of protection, at the same time, I realized how grownup she is. Oh, be still my heart.
-m
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