cherry blossoms

Ahh the famous cherry blossoms. I was very excited to be in Asia during this special time of year so I decided that we should join the gazillion people that go to Youido every year to see the cherry blossoms in bloom on trees that are hundreds of years old.

Our acupuncturist told us that there was another famous place to see old beautiful trees in Seoul but the trees were chopped down during the Japanese occupation.


It was really incredible to look up in the tunnel and see the sunlight through all the blossoms. I think if the sky had been bright blue it would have been amazing - but it was a bit overcast and still amazing really.
John posing with a lovely old tree. You can see the crowds moving through - so many people - not exactly a poetic, serene scene but hopefully we will get some quiet moments in the trees this weekend near our house. We are planning to hike up Gwanak-san and I think there will be lots of cherry trees as well as other flowers.


So graceful.....
The white petals falling is like snow....
This shot really shows the tunnel effect. It was breathtaking - wish we had a better camera - these photos are kind of flat.

There was a huge street festival there in celebration of the trees blooming. Lots of street performers and food - many street artists too. It was fun.
This is a group that Netta, John and Olive watched for awhile while I went scouting for the row of trees.



At the end of the day we found a park and the girls played bubbles and ran around. Then we took the bus back home and had dinner. It was a nice day - nice to spend time together as a family and get out in the city again.

So 'ping (spring) is here as Olive calls it. Not very hot and kind of windy but lovely enough to get out of the house every day. The next couple of months promise to be busy as we plan our last few trips for while we are here and try to get the most out of our last 69 days in Korea. Not that we are counting!!!