More from Grandma's Visit

Grandma is usually stuck at home working hard for the family when she visits us, so we wanted to make sure we take her out to see what else is out there other than the malls in Bellevue.  On Saturday, we went to Sakura Matsuri, Cherry Blossome Festival, at Seattle Center.  The kids are familiar with the Space Needle now, but they were mesmerized by its height.  Someday, we'll take them up - when we say good-bye to the double stroller for good. 

The festival itself was like the Akimatsuri held every fall at Bellevue College.  The kids are a little too young to participate in the activities at the booth (Sean might have had fun), but they got to see people in worrier costumes (which scared the heck out of them) and Japanese arts.  Grandma showed them how to fold origami and they liked that a lot.  But the most fun they had was out at the giant fountain.  They could have stood there for a long time if we let them and Noah would have surely marched right in and gotten himself soaked.  It was a cold day, so we didn't stay out too long.  We hurried home and ate the take out from Facing East, which was good as always.


On Sunday, we went to the UW to see the famous cherry blossome trees.  I've been reading about it for a while but this was my first time.  I parked too far from the spot and poor grandma had to walk quite a bit, sometimes pushing the single stroller.  It was a good exercise regardless!  I sometimes forget that she is 72 since she looks young and has a lot of stamina!  Once we got there, we were so happy that we finally arrived.  The trees were big and old and had dreamy light pink flowers floating like clouds.  They were very beautiful.  I now understand why it's been talked about a lot on Japanese community paper.  The kids were running around looking at the flowers and people.  There were many people out there enjoying the view.  There were two Japanese ladies playing koto, an ancient string instrument.   I wanted them to play the cherry blossome song, but they never did.  The kids had a lot of fun and were pretty tired by the time we got home.  We definitely wore grandma out, but I hope she had a good time, too.