In spite of its drawbacks (hateful political posts, vague booking, overshared details of offsprings’ projectile vomit, poop, etc), Facebook can be a pretty wonderful thing. It connects us to friends from all facets of our lives, entertains us with cat videos, updates us on the latest news (and gossip)…and inspires us to explore new places.

Like this place.

Prior to my planned work trip to Wisconsin, a friend in Madison posted on Facebook some photos of a trip he and his wife took to a place called Pope Farm Conservancy.

Uh, I wanna go.

So I made a little extra drive…

…climbed up this hill (click on pano for detail)…

 …marveled at the clouds…

…admired the prairie habitat wildflowers…

…strolled by this storybook stone wall…

…and found this.

 Nine acres of sunflowers. Half a million golden blooms as far as the eye can see. (Click pano for detail)

What an unexpected gift.

Thanks, Facebook.