Dia de los Muertos

We attended the Day of the Dead Festival at the Botanic Gardens last year. We had a great time and one of our friends said she would like to join us the next time we went. So we invited her to join us today. Fortunately, she was able to come.

Marina wanted to dress up, so I had her try on a black lace dress of mine. It fit her pretty well. We added a flower wreath from the Renaissance Festival. She looked great!

We picked up our friend, then drove to the Botanic Gardens. Not only was today the Day of the Dead Festival, it was also a free day. So we were concerned about finding parking. Fortunately, we found a great spot right away, so we were quickly into the gardens.

We started by getting Marina’s face painted. The line was slow but the face painter Marina got was amazing. She created a design to go with the flower wreath she was wearing. She looked beautiful and received compliments all day.

We checked out a few of the crafts. Marina made her own picture for an ink press and designed a frame. She also decorated a clay “sugar skull.” After the crafts we watched a few bouts of Lucha Libre wrestling. Marina even got her picture taken with one of the wrestlers.

We went into the gardens which were fabulously decorated. There were banners everywhere and statues put up for the Day of the Dead celebration. We got a chance to look at displays set up by families to honor their loved ones who had passed away. Near the Japanese Garden was a greenhouse with colorful sticks that we could write loved ones’ names on. Marina wrote one for Melanie our cat and put it in a display for pets.

We decided to stop for lunch. Marina got a salad with grapes and goat cheese. She also tried my chicken mole panini which she also liked. While we were eating, she talked with two ladies who were sharing our table. They talked about cats, anime and Comic Con. She clearly had made some new friends!

After lunch we went into the greenhouse to see the tropical plants. Our friend knew a lot about those plants and she talked about them with Marina. After we looked at the greenhouse, we looked around at the gift shop for a while. By then, the gardens were getting very crowded, so we decided to go home.