An “unintended experience” is pretty much impossible, as anything you do results in some kind of experience, but that’s what it felt like when the family and I visited the “Dahlia Capital of America,” Swan Island Dahlias, located in Canby, Oregon.

We’re talking fields and fields of dahlias. I didn’t even know this many varieties existed. There were ones that looked like this:

And this…

With names like “Surprise,” “Gladiator,” and “Hottie,” there was a dahlia for everyone. We spent about an hour just wandering in wonder, discovering flowers we never knew existed. The kids had a blast learning about these new species (especially “Surprise,” which we would shout out at random over the course of the day), and it would have been free of charge except we were inspired to purchase 5 bulbs, or tubers, or however they’re delivered.

We had gone with the intention of finding some new flowers to plant in the yard, and instead we had this color explosion experience. We didn’t know we were going to have this kind of reaction when we set out… surprise!

(We even added it to our Travel Journal on Travel Oregon’s website – a shameless plug for something I worked on.)