Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Cherry Blossom Parade

The big event of our third day in Washington, DC was the Cherry Blossom Parade.  This year marks the 100th anniversary of the gift of the cherry trees from Japan.  Unfortunately we didn't see any actual cherry blossoms because they bloomed early this year.  That didn't matter, though!  The parade was great!
It was the hottest day of our entire trip


The parade begins!

Ambassadors from Japan

Many many marching bands with many many drums!

From our seats, we watched everything pass by in front of the Washington Monument.  It was spectacular!

Unicycles!


Japanese drummers are Noah and Isaac's favorite!

The boys loved this robotic spider that "walked" the entire parade route

Miss Cherry Blossom

While the parade went on, Isaac ate countless cookies from this tub, then drank the crumbs...

...and wore the tub as a hat!

More drummers!

The parade was fabulous, and long.  It went on for a few hours!  We were ready to leave and get some lunch, but we had to convince Noah to leave early.  He loved watching every float and band coming down the street and didn't want to miss anything.