Cherry Blossoms Part 1

We planned our annual trip to the Cherry Blossom Festival for one day before the predicted peak bloom.  I was worried because last year we went towards the end of the festival and all the blossoms were well past prime.  This year nothing had bloomed yet.

  

I felt bad because we took friends with us who had never been before

It all turned out wonderfully though because everyone was in good spirits and just wanted to have fun together. 

Since the trees were not calling to us with their beauty, we turned the opposite direction from where we walk normally and explored more of the festival activities.  The girls got to pretend to be the mascot of the festival.  I have no idea what his name is but he is on everything.

They got to help make a friendship mural with children from Japan. 

 Each girl add her own special piece of art work to the mural. The rangers are taking pictures of each section of the mural and sending them to Japan to be put on their mural as well as putting pictures of the Japanese drawings on our mural.  Hence the friendship part. 

The highlight of the day was an unexpected bonus.  We doubled back to use the restrooms after deciding it was time to leave.   As we were heading out this performance was starting. 

We got to see a traditional Japanese drum dance performed by a company direct from Japan.  The girls were thrilled with the dragon dog.  But Froggy's favorite was the sword dance. 

 

And a truly special treat came in being able to get a picture with the company at the end and pet the dragon dog.