lilac festival

friday was the official start to the lilac festival, so this morning, like the last three years, we got up early, had our once a year egg mcmuffins and scoped out for a place to watch the parade. and after the parade, we walked through highland park to scope out the flowers.

on the way through, the smell of fried dough and sweets were calling us, so we made a pit stop for mcdonald's strawberry lemonade samples and my very first corndog. i didn't care for the lemonade so much, but jason was right about the corndog. it was really really good.

so we made our way through the crowd and into the park for the star of the show. the flowers. the lilacs.

since the weather had been so warm over the last couple weeks, i was worried there weren't going to be much left for lilacs. and really, a lot of the white, light blue, and light purple ones were way past their prime. the magnolia trees had already bloomed and gone without a trace and a lot of the other flowering trees that are usually bright and beautiful during the festival had already bloomed and gone too. i was surprised at the dark purples that hadn't yet bloomed and the azaleas and rhododendrons (i don't ever remember seeing those at the festival). regardless, it's a pretty magnificent sight to see - even martha stewart likes it. i remember a couple years ago (2007?) when that was the big news. i spied martha and her camera crew walking through the park while i was standing in line for a candy apple.

lilacs in all colors and sizes








azaleas and rhododendrons of all colors too