Lotus Festival

Today we went to the Lotus Festival in Echo Park. The Lotus Festival is held one weekend in July each year when the lotus flowers on the west side of the lake blossom. From the lake you have a nice view of the skyscrapers in Downtown Los Angeles. The first time I went there I felt like I was in Vietnam. Floating lotus blossoms in a lake in LA? It was/is a sight to see!

According to their website, their mission is:
"To develop, promote and create an atmosphere of understanding in which Asian and Pacific Islander communities in Southern California are brought together for two (2) days of cultural sharing. To preserve and enlighten the public with a sampling of distinctly different and unique Asian and Pacific Islander customs and traditions in the arts, music, dance, drama and food. Providing a fun and enjoyable festival for the entire family."
www.laparks.org/grifmet/lotus.htm

Basically you go there to eat, look/walk around, and buy stuff. The best feature is the park itself. There's grass, shade from the trees, and the lake itself with the beautiful lotus blossoms located at one end and the fountain in the middle. You can also rent paddle boats.

No one knows for sure how the lotus blossoms got into the lake. Legend has it that they were planted by Angeles Temple missionaries who brought back seeds from China. Then another theory is that this was done to create a water garden which were extremely popular in Los Angeles in the 1920's. http://www.historicechopark.org/id88.html

It was definitely easier getting there (going down the stairs) then going back (going up the stairs) when you have a kid. Here's Uwe using his muscles to carry Astrid up and down the stairs in her stroller.

Uwe was a real trooper in dealing with the lack of parking and the crowds. He knew I really wanted to go since we've missed it the past couple years.

If you look closely you can see the Dragon boat out on the lake. There were people sitting in it as it was gliding across the water.

Here's another photo of the Dragon boat, this time stationary and docked.

A surprise this year was a concession stand selling dippin dots (a flash-frozen dot-shaped ice cream desserts). I first saw this product on Oprah when she featured the inventor and sampled the tasty treats on tv.

"Microbiologist Curt Jones first pursued the concept of ice cream innovation in 1987. Curt’s knowledge of cryogenic freezing methods led him to thoughts of creating an ice cream treat consumers would value as unusually fresh and flavorful. Experiments with cryogenically freezing an ice cream mix made from an old family recipe led to the flash-freezing of the very first tiny beads of ice cream. Curt’s theory proved to be true…flash-freezing does make richer, fresher tasting ice cream. Plus, because of the small round shape of the beads his little ‘dots’ were irresistibly fun to eat!"

http://www.dippindots.com/home.asp

I dunno what dippin dots have to do with the Asian or Pacific Islander culture, but hey I'll try it!

We got a cup of the banana split flavor as we were leaving the park. (On Oprah the inventor said banana split was the most popular flavor.) There were different colored beads that tasted like chocolate (brown), banana (yellow), and vanilla (white).

As you can see from this photo, the experience of eating ice cream shaped into freezing cold little beads is a bit strange. Uwe found it to be too strange. I still prefer ice cream, but dippin dots are different and yummy and I would definitely have them again.

So that brought our weekend to an end. I love spending time with Uwe and Astrid. The weekends always go by so fast.