Hanami is an ancient Japanese tradition of celebrating the cherry blossom season. It is dubbed as the "New York City Rite of Spring". I didn't want to miss out on this so yesterday, knowing from the forecast that the weather would be a "park perfect" day, we headed to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens to experience this! My friend Celine already visited the park last weekend and absolutely adored it (http://networkedblogs.com/32wZf).
The Garden displays 42 varieties of these cherry blossoms (supposedly the largest collection outside of Japan!) and no one variety blooms for more than 10 days. So for those who are planning to see it, I highly suggest that you do it very soon while the bloom is at its prettiest. Joel and I walked under the amazingly beautiful cherry blossom canopies holding hands and pushing the bugaboo where Henri was quietly seated. We looked up and took sheer pleasure in the beauty all around. Nature at is finest! *sigh*
Brooklyn Botanic Garden