Cherry Blossom Festival

This weekend was our chance to check out the beautiful cherry blossoms that were all over Seoul. We decided to go to Children's Grand Park on Saturday for some sightseeing as well as to put the new camera to the test.

Right out of the subway was a lady selling chicks and ducklings. She was obviously preying on the thousands of kids who were present.

From Cherry Blossoms

Just past the entrance is a large pond.

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Just past that two rows of cherry trees welcome you into the picnic area. We got there early in the day, so the crowds were not too bad.

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As you can see, the crowds were much larger later in the day. Here is a picture taken just a couple of hours later.

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The center of the park houses a large pavilion built with traditional architecture.

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The park offers a small, free zoo that is home to some zebras, elephants, tigers, lions, bears, and several monkeys.

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A lion yawns.

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It's contagious.

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A bear has learned that waving hello will usually result in free food.

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A baby baboon climbs his cage. After a trip around the zoo, everyone was hungry, so we found some shade under some bamboo and had a small picnic lunch.

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The entertainment for the afternoon came from the hundreds of sprinting kids.

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Some kids chose to powerwalk.

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Here a child tries to shoot a Frisbee from a tree.

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Towards the end of the day, the blossoms began to snow onto the ground because of the hot sun.

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The final section of the park is a small amusement park. It was small, but that gave it a small carnival-like feel.

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Children are allowed to ride these huge stuffed animals that actually walk around the park.

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From Cherry Blossoms

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Here are the Korean equivalent of bumper boats. These are all man powered.

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From Cherry Blossoms

Here we are enjoying some ice cream before heading off to enjoy the rest of our day at a baseball game.

By the time we left, the once pristine ground was blanketed in cherry blossom petals.

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Here, Savannah enjoys a self made petal shower.

From Cherry Blossoms

From Cherry Blossoms

After that was a short ride on the subway to our first baseball game of 2009, but that will have to wait for a later post. Sorry if this was a little heavy on the pictures, but I'm having too much fun with the new camera. As always, here's a slideshow with all of the pictures.