Fields of Sunshine

Sometime last week I saw a picture in the Washington Post of a little girl wandering through a field of sunflowers that towered over her.  I was immediately intrigued and wanted to know where such a beautiful place in the DC area could possibly be.  Luckily the caption gave the location and after doing a little investigating I was happy to discover that not only was it not too far from our home but that it also just so happened to be right in the middle of peak blooming time.  I immediately started making plans to go.  

 On Saturday we drove to McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area in Poolesville, Maryland to  see the fields of blooming sunshine for ourselves.  We hadn't realized when we got there that there are actually several different sunflower fields, so we were a little disappointed when the first one we came to looked a little wilty already.  Luckily we could see a second field not far in the distance which was much perkier looking.  We walked onward and were officially entranced! 

Even the drive to the sunflower fields was a beautiful sight in and of itself!

We visited the field right on  River Road, which was the easiest to get to, but it was also the most crowded.   We also visited some on  Hunting Quarter's Road, but they were a bit of a walk to get to (and a little past full bloom).  Our favorite field of all was the one on Sycamore Landing Road.   There weren't any other people there and it wasn't a long walk from the car.  Most of our pictures are from that field.

We also enjoyed watching the bees, dragonflies, butterflies, and goldfinches that abounded in the fields of yellow.  

Now my kids are eagerly watching the sunflowers that Adam planted in our yard earlier this summer.  They're actually quite a bit bigger than this now, but not as photogenic since beetles have been eating up the leaves.

Here are my favorite two pictures from the day: 

My family (except Spence and I) soaking in the sunshine all around them. 

And our own little ray of sunshine totally in her element!

"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. It's what sunflowers do."

~ Helen Keller