Magic orchid paradise

Ben and I rented a car to go to a friend's engagement party way out in the East Bay yesterday, but the car rental place is closed on Sundays so we got to keep it today too. We decided to take advantage of it and drive over to Pacifica, which is a really pretty little town on the ocean that's not accessible by public transit, so we can't usually go there. At the outskirts of the town we noticed a sign for Shelldance Orchid Gardens, which we followed because it seemed interesting and we didn't really have anything else to do. It took us along a narrow, winding path up the side of a steep hill, and at the top there were what looked like a bunch of decrepit warehouses attached to each other. We were feeling pretty skeptical but followed signs to the entrance, and holy crap those ancient warehouses are actually 70 year old greenhouses housing a magical fairyland of orchids and many other exotic flowers.

Seriously, I felt like I was in the Hogwarts greenhouse.

They had orchids of all sizes:

As big as Ben's face!

Much smaller than Ben's face!

They had orchids of all shapes:

Only three petals!

Starfish wearing a bib!

Payot!

Cluster!

They had all kinds of plants that weren't even orchids:

Translucent petal cactus thing!

Flower with more flowers inside!

Giant leaves with intentional holes!

Flower playing the trumpet!

Purple spikes!

Upside-down Rapunzel cactus!

????	Pitcher Plant! (I actually knew this one!)

We ended up buying a cool little succulent that looks like boxes stacked on top of each other, because it was the only thing we thought there were somewhat decent odds we wouldn't kill:

Neither words nor pictures can convey how cool this place was. If you ever are anywhere near Pacifica, you have to go!

(Also, we did eventually leave the greenhouses and go over to the beach, although it ended up being more of an afterthought than the main show.)