Flowers, Flowers, Flowers

So it is flower festival time here in Okinawa and we decided to dive right in this year. This first picture is the view we had while sitting in traffic on the way to the first cherry blossom festival. Not a bad way to get through traffic don't you think?
As we were driving I also saw something common around here and my husband asked why I was taking a picture of signs. I did it because before we moved here I didn't think such American scenery would be as common here as it is.
By the time we got to the festival the children were starving so be bought them a traditional Japanese snack, french fries. OK, so this isn't really traditionally Japanese this is obviously catering to Americans, but what must they think of us to serve such a huge portion? My favorite were the cute little make shift table and benches for the festival.

The hike to see the blossoms. Although there were very few blossoms, the scenery was still amazing.

Road construction is way more entertaining over here.

Yes, this is a poinsettia behind my family.

We even found a roller park at the festival.



As we walked back down the hill to the festival we saw some amazing and beautiful things.
An example of the amazing would be this spotted tree. Look carefully, we did and saw that this tree actually has white spots on it.
Then we passed this snail. The camera didn't do it justice, it was easily the size of a softball.






There were some fun traditional performances at the festival.

Our children loved listening to the singers and were quite captivated.

There were a few kids that had enough of the crowds at the festival and found playing in the water to be more entertaining.
For dinner we bought our children something called a french dog. It is a baguette type roll with a sausage in it. They were pleased.
It may not be a Y on that hill, but if you look closely you can see the kanji writing in lights on the hill side.
Our son had just spotted the other boys playing in the water and was watching them enviously.
Next it was time to go even further up north for the orchid festival. On our way I decided to take a few pictures of some of my favorite type of trees. I don't know what the above one is, I just like the way it looks. Of course it is hard not to love the banyan tree as scene below.




This is all made out of orchids amazing.
These are tree branches spray painted silver with individual sprigs of orchids place all over to look like a newly blossoming tree.
This plant is called a red sister and is one of my husbands favorites. We first saw one at Wal Mart in North Dakota and couldn't figure out why we couldn't keep in alive. Now that we know it comes from here, that makes more sense.























Of course my children live to see the fish.









Well, I hope you enjoyed the pictures as much as we enjoyed taking them