Filoli: Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life

A couple of weeks ago, my mom and I went to Filoli House and Garden in Redwood City.

Filoli was built for Mr. William Bowers Bourn II and Mrs. Agnes Moody Bourn, who were prominent (and RICH!) San Franciscans who made money from the Empire Mine (hard-rock gold) in Grass Valley, California. Mr. Bourn came up with "Filoli" by combining the first few letters of his credo:

Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life.

The estate was donated to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1975 by its last owner, Mrs. William P. Roth.

Anyway that's all history. What matters now is that the estate is well kept and beautifully landscaped with flowers (everywhere!). We got lucky in that they still had tulips (my favorite!).

The entrance is $15/adult, and you can easily spend 1-3 hours there just meandering around the grounds looking at all the flowers (and don't forget to check out the mansion too).

The weather turned out sunny and PERFECT the day my mom and I went to Filoli. (Seems like lots of other people had the same idea as us too cause the place was kind of crowded!)

We noticed that there were a lot of plants in pots (mostly tulips and daffodils) and surmised that it was so the docents at Filoli can bring them in or out as they bloom (or die).

There were several areas where they had multiple colors of tulips or tulips with other flowers. The arrangements were pretty!

We'd been to Filoli once before with our friends, and it seems like they have different flowers they focus on at different times. Regardless of what time of year you visit, it's beautiful!