Festival Weekend

Labor Day weekend in St. Louis features many festivals and events. Our favorite is the Japanese Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden. We went on Sunday afternoon and not only saw and heard the Taiko drummers (Judi's favorite) but also glimpsed part of the Chihuly blown glass exhibit that has been the talk of the town all summer. The yellow sculpture at the left is at the entrance to the old-fashioned rose garden. During the storms on July 19 that knocked out power all over the metro area and destroyed numerous trees, including over 50 valuable trees at the Botanical Garden, none of the outdoor glass sculptures were damaged.

Dale Chihuly 's works are found throughout the Garden. Most of them can be viewed inside the Climatron for a separate admission charge. Among those on general display are these floating bulbs in the lily pad gardens in front of the Climatron. If you have ever been to the MBT, you'll recognize the Climatron's reflection in the photo at the right. (Note: Chihuly's works are copyrighted. Permission has been given to photograph them for educational and noncommercial use only.)

The highlight of the weekend for us is the Japanese festival. Judi has a "thing" for Taiko drummers! This ancient art started as a defense tactic. Villagers would beat their drums loudly to fool an attacker into thinking there were more people there to defend the town than actually were there. It was revived as a performance art a few decades ago. The Festival has had guest groups from San Diego and Hawaii, but St. Louis now has its own talented group of Taiko drummers and they performed an entertaining program in the 80-degree sunshine. During the festival, we got in at least a mile of walking, counting the distance from our parking place to the entrance and various tours around the grounds. We also saw a procession, women practicing for a kimono fashion show, and an exhibit of Ikebana flower arranging and Bonsai. We had a good time and the best part was Judi waking up on Monday without a stiff knee! The wounds from the laproscopic surgery in June are slowly but surely healing up and the full range of motion is returning. Next week we will be visiting in Florida for a few days, and looking forward to a long walk on the beach, if the next hurricane will just stay out to sea!