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May 03, 2005
Sakura Matsuri
The Sakura Matsuri (Cherry Blossom Festival) was held at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden this past weekend and it was gorgeous. The Garden is always perfectly maintained and full of interesting finds, although I always feel a little bitter about not being able to bring a picnic in and enjoy it while sitting on the grass. They're very particular about things and have lots of rules. But as a result the place looks like a royal estate garden and the plants take center stage. If you missed it, take a look at our photos.
Since Saturday was rainy the place was packed on Sunday and there was a bit of a line to get in. True to form, my allergies exploded the moment we were reached the Cherry Esplanade. Sneezing, watery eyes, snot everywhere -- and no Claritin in sight because I had practically no warning (not that it works anyway). They catch me by surprise every year, and every year they get a tiny bit worse. I place all blame squarely on the air quality in the city. Days like today make me think seriously about Derek's preferred solution of eliminating traffic completely from Manhattan.
Anyway, the cherry blossoms were something else -- you can sit underneath them and be completely surrounded by plump pink bouquets. And since the lines for food or beer were ridiculously long and the stage was pretty hard to get to, that's pretty much all we did. I worked on my shawl, Derek read about Argentina and we both sat back and tried to enjoy the sun and assault of pink without succumbing to the floating masses of sneeze-inducing pollen. Dinner at Scottaditto made us feel better afterward -- the $15 prix fix there feels like a steal. The $20 we spent on drinks kind of evened out the price, but it was still a fantastic meal, complete with good coffee and a glass of porto at the end.
Posted by csageday at May 3, 2005 12:38 AM