Ashikaga

I went on two excursions in April to see flowers.  Last year because I had Covid I didn't get to go see the wisteria so when a bunch of ladies in the ward decided to go this year I jumped at the chance to go.  We had enough women wanting to go that we had to split into two groups and go on two different days.  I got to go with the group with some of the Sr. sister missionaries from our ward.  They are a funny group of ladies with really strong personalities.  They would just walk away and the rest of us would have to go hunt them down and herd them back to the group.  

Ashikaga is a flower park about an hour and a half North from the city.  It has all kinds of flowers but the main attraction in the wisteria.  It was breathtaking.  I wish I had the entire park to myself but I also enjoy people-watching.  They had this big area in the center of the park with chairs and benches and everyone just ate their lunches under a magical canopy of white wisteria.  

Whenever I go on an excursion like this to a flower park there is always an ice cream being sold that represents that flower.  This time it was a purple wisteria ice cream.  It was more like a sherbet but it was delicious.  Not perfumy or strong.  We all made sure to buy an ice cream cone, except for Sister Brown who decided to go eat Takoyaki, which are balls of fried dough with octopus inside.