Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

Liz, Patrick, and I biked to Kenilworth for the Lotus and Water Lily Festival on Saturday. It was great even if we had to dodge around Minnesota Ave because the bike path isn't finished. We saw the Asian Cultural Dances and lots of flowers. I had no idea lotus are so nice!

Here's the cute little boys dancing

And the crowd

The Korean drum ladies

Burmese and Indian mash-up!

Green lotus pod

Lotus opening

A sea of lotus

Lotus fully open

These leaves are huge! (that's my hand)

And here's Liz checking them out

The leaves are superhydrophobic (according to Wikipedia) and water puddles up without wetting them. Apparently this lotus effect cleans the leaves. 

Everyone is a photographer!

Ordinary water lily

Another lotus for good measure

Fancy tropical water lily

I liked the different leaves on the tropical hybrids

This giant round lily leaf looks like pizzas in the water

Some of them are varigated

And the frog is using this one, it was probably a 2-inch frog so you get an idea of the size of the leaves--giant!

Mature lotus seed pod

Sarah, Liz, and Patrick