In honor of Father’s Day this weekend, I thought I’d write about one of my favorite places in South Florida. The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens is a beautiful natural oasis in the middle of a city, with walking gardens, lakes, and many Japanese artifacts. The Morikami is a testament to what the Boca Raton/Delary Beach area was just 100 years ago - farmland where many Japanese immigrants came to work and live. The Yamato Colony was started in 1903 by Jo Sakai, where first only men, and then families grew and harvested pineapples and winter vegetables. As the land became more desirable and began to be sold off for development during World War II, George Morikami had a vision to preserve some of the land he lived on for much of his life. He bought much of the land that is now the Morikami Gardens, and gifted the land (which took ten years to accomplish!) in 1973.

The Morikami Gardens have been ranked 8th out of more than 300 Japanese gardens outside Japan by the Journal of Japanese Gardening. It’s a wonderful place to bring kids - quiet, charming, and full of natural beauty, you’d never know that right outside is a modern world so far from the six diverse gardens, including zen gardens, bamboo clusters and flowing streams within the museum walls. The Morikami always have amazing historical exhibits, and celebrates all the major Japanese holidays and festivals, with an emphasis on children’s participation. This weekend, the Morikami is hosting an Origami with Dad afternoon, free with museum admission.

If you haven’t tried origami with your kids, it’s a great craft that you can use with scrap paper or with special origami paper from a craft store. My five year old has become pretty good with the simple origami shapes, and loves being creative with all the paper airplanes she can fly through the house. The Origami Club is a great website to visit to introduce your family to the art of paper folding!