Moonlight Forest Chinese Lantern Festival - Part 1

The Moonlight Forest Chinese Lantern Festival at the Los Angeles County Arboretum was one of the most fun things we've done in a while.  The Arboretum is located in Arcadia, California, a little under a 3-hour drive from our home.  Afterwards we had a very good Chinese meal at Capital Seafood in Arcadia, spent the night at at local hotel, and drove home in the morning.  It was a short trip, but well worth the effort to see this.

Our entry tickets were for 5:30pm, so by the time we got inside the sky was completely black.  I got this first image while Heather waited in the long line for the gate.

These are thin fabric lanterns lit from the inside by light bulbs.  The backgrounds are black because the lanterns are so much brighter than their surroundings.  It almost makes the images look like paintings, but they're not.

To help put the size of that peacock into perspective, they had a stand where people lined up to have their pictures taken in front of it.

The Ocean Tunnel was one of the coolest parts.

More images to follow in Part Two.