Cherry Blossom Festival '09
Amanda arrived around midnight, I'm not sure I don't remember. *LoL*
My husband was very sweet and went to pick her up for me. I told him I was going to sleep until my alarm went off. And I left my phone with him encase I slept through it. I woke up to Bobby poking at me and Amanda sliding into the bathroom across from me.
Following morning which was Friday, I woke up and got Sakura together and out w/Bobby. I showered, dressed and picked up a bit. And around 11 almost noon I thought I'd better wake Amanda up; who was still a sleep. * LoL* It was raining and a nasty day for the most part. We didn't get the car tell later so we kept close to town. I took her to one of our favorite restaurants Yens cafe. And then we ran some arrons. Later that night we went to Esoterica. Amanda picked up some cute yarn hairbands for the festival the next day and I purchased my teacher Irene's new CD "Cassandra Syndrome ; Of Patriots
and Tyrants". Which was very good. I love the vocals in it. If your into operatic vocals or heavy metal I highly recommend it. Here's a link. http://www.cassandrasyndrome.com/patriots.htmWe headed home and Bobby and I proceeded to overload Amanda with books and CD's to take home. Then off to bed we went. The following morning, rougly 4 1/2 hrs later about 5 a.m. I woke up, showered and started to get dressed. Snuck in and got Amanda up. I wanted to do her hair which looked fabulous with the pigtails and yarn bands. Very harujuko. And the black roses added flare. I should have done pink eyebrows for myself but I didn't think to much about it tell afterwards. Oh well.
I didn't pack the baby up the night before like I should have which caused us to leave an hour late. But after only getting lost once, dropping Sakura off, heading to the metro and walking to the Mall. We managed to make it for some of the parade. :) Which was fun but disapointing. There were way too many high school bands. Bleh. Poor kids looked half frozen.
Speaking of frozen after we watched some of the parade we headed over to the Japanese Street Fair that had just got started. I immeditatly found some place to change clothing. I was FREEZING. I was so glad I was intelligent enough to pack an extra outfit incase it got cold. I'd packed a tattoo shirt which I wore underneath the kimono top ( might I add was NOT made with heavy chested women in mind) and then threw on my blue jeans over the black leggings. And to keep my wig down I brought my black gypsy/pirate/whatever you want to call it head wrap. Which I used the cherry blossom clip to secure the wrap down. So it stayed good and on all day. I looked like a Japanese Pirate...with a cherry blossom fetish. *LoL* Note to self: Buy Kimono for next year you cheap ass.
Amanda was in a good mood except she'd started to develop a wicked cough making her sound like a 50 yr old smoker. We were both tired and hungry at that point so we wiggled in and out through the food vendors and found some grub. We shared Soba noodles & broth, red bean cakes (so yummy) and an ume and pickled seaweed rice balls. After lunch/breakfast we headed off to do some shopping. There was SO much over priced Japanese stuff. I surf Japanese goods sites often and I'd seen allot of what they were selling was marked up double, if not triple what it was worth. I had to laugh though because it was selling. I did find a good buy. A beautiful porcelain geisha. She was about 15 inches tall and mounted on wood. She was only $20 dollars and they laid her in a box and banded it shut. So she stayed safe through the whole journey home. I'll take a picture and load it soon. Amanda bought some cherry blossom hair clips and other cherry blossom themed stuff and I picked up a cheap t-shirt for Bobby. I was tempted to a buy a stuffed bunny for Sakura but the girl has a bazillion stuffed animals already and she only drools on them right now. So maybe next year.
Once we had enough of the fair we walked to the Washington memorial. Which was quite a feat in and of itself. The crowds were thick like mash pit. And the traffic was jammed pack. After taking some cheesy photos in front of it we headed down to the Basin. Which is where a large amount of the cherry blossoms are. They ring the pond area around wrap around the memorials. We were going to walk to the Jefferson memorial but as you can see from the picture the mob there look horrendous and we were dead tired at that point. So we decided to call it early and head back. Which took a few hours. Because headed to a blocked metro entrance and had to go down a few blocks to wait in a large mob there. You couldn't even tell where the people started to go underground it was so crowded. And people were pushing and showing and acting crazy. The train ride home was relaxing and I almost fell sleep at one point. Poor Amanda was fading quick. Whatever she had caught was getting worse.
Once we arrived we found the car and left to pick up Sakura at grandma's. I changed there, that kimono was annoying when it came to moving your arms. And Bobby's parents loaded us up on water for the trip home. We were so dehydrated. Which was bad...but neither of us had to use the port-a-potties at the Mall. :)
As soon as we made it home. We melted for awhile...then picked up and got some sushi at Naruto. Bobby had though Amanda would like it because it was Japanese food and one of our favorite places for sushi. But Amanda actually hates Japanese food for the most part. Foreign food in general. :) That's my all American Amanda for you. *LoL* I personally could live on anything but American. Too bland for my taste but then I like my food spiced and exotic. We arrived home from the restaurant and crashed. We all went straight to bed. I woke up about 5 am the next morning to wake Amanda up. We had purchased tickets for a cruise around the Potomac river to see the blossoms. But she was too tired and still sick. And frankly I was dead too. So we slept in. We spent her last day kicking it around town. We stopped at the local anime shop and the Barnes and nobles. I picked up a new tarot deck. Which I like allot more. And find it much easier to read then the herbal one. And that night Amanda packed and left around 4-5 am the next morning. Over all it was a good weekend. I was very happy to see and spend time with my dear friend. However next time she's down hopefully she'll have more time to do the tourist thing. And we can check out all the museums and monuments together. And perhaps Sakura will be old enough not to cause too much trouble. ;)
My friend Alfred later that day at work recommended I try MeadowLark Botanical Gardens. Which we did this Easter Sunday. I think next year I'll be going here for our cherry blossom viewing. It was gorgeous. Beautiful blossoms and flowers everywhere. Places to open a blanket an lay down. And very...very....empty! It was like a mini paradise. We'd have stayed longer if the wind didn't pick up and force out. We did have time to lay by the pond and watch the swans. They came right up to us. I could have reached out and touched them they were so close. Sakura had big eyes and was smiling. She LOVES duckies. At least the yellow kind in the bathtub. ;) I've got allot of pictures in this blog. From St.Patricks day, Ostara, the Festival, meadowlark and some pictures of Sakura in some of my old baby clothes. Promise future blogs will be less crowded. And if you want to see more pictures take a look at my facebook albums. I have them all posted there. :)
