Hangang Yeouido Spring Flower Festival

I had my 20 week ultrasound yesterday, and the good news is that Baby W. is perfectly healthy. Everything looks good, and I was able to see arms, legs, nose, lips, heart, brain, kidneys, spine, and even his or her little baby butt. ;) The bad news is that Jonathan is gone, and we had agreed to find out the sex together. So now on my counter sits a plain white envelope that contains the latest pictures--including the one that tells the gender--of our unborn child. And I have to wait until Jonathan gets home to open it. Although he is supposed to be home on Friday, I knew this would be the looooooongest week of my life. Better fill it up with things to do.

First up, a trip up to Seoul and the Hangang Yeouido Spring Flower Festival. Spring takes it sweet time coming to the ROK, with things looking dead and brown way into late April. However, once it gets here, spring is my favorite time of here on the pen. The flowers are beautiful, none more so than the cherry blossoms. I tried to go the Cherry Blossom Festival last weekend, but all the bus tickets were sold out. Luckily, I came across this festival in the paper and--bonus--it was very do-able via the Seoul subway system. So a few friends and I boarded the train and headed up there this morning.

Although the festival had officially been going on for a few days, it seemed to be still gaining momentum when we arrived. I believe the "big" celebration doesn't start until this weekend. Most of the cherry blossoms were JUST getting ready to bloom and many of the booths were still being put up. However, for me, it was the perfect time to visit, as there were very few people there--which is a rarity ANYWHERE in South Korea--and the flowers were still beautiful, nonetheless.

After exiting the subway, it was a short walk along the Han River to the festival. Every time we come to Seoul, we drive along the river and I think to myself, "I'd love to just take walk along it someday." Well. . . now I have.

The road next to the National Assembly building was blocked off so you could walk along the cherry blossom trees. As you can see, most of them were JUST getting ready to bloom. . but the view was still beautiful. Imagine walking along this with classical music playing all around you. . .

There were a few cherry blossoms blooming. . . and all the Koreans were gathered around it, taking pictures. We joined them. ;)

There were various displays of flower "art" along the road. I didn't quite understand it, but it was still pretty. ;)

Beautiful displays of spring flowers. . .

More cherry blossoms in bloom. Like I said, I love them.

Since we were right by the Han River, we were excited to see a sign announcing the 'Seoul Boat Show'. . .

. . . but, in typical 'Land of the Not-Quite-Right' fashion, it turned out to be less than spectacular. THESE were the boats of the 'Seoul Boat Show'. . . all 5 of them. ;)

All in all, a beautiful, relaxing spring day spent with wonderful friends and pretty flowers. And I didn't think about opening that envelope all day. . . at least until I got home. ;)