Window on the West: Seattle's Washington Park Arboretum

Like Japanese aristocrats of old, wise gardeners go on at leastone pilgrimage each spring to celebrate the flowering cherries.From a distance, the blossoms look like pink clouds floating overblushing pools of fallen petals. Up close, their fragrance is lightand ephemeral ― tonic for winter-weary souls. Nowhere is thebloom more dramatic than in the Northwest, and no place morespectacular than at Seattle’s Washington Park Arboretum. You’ll seethe most spectacular bloom along Azalea Way, a parklike grasspromenade that extends south and west from the Donald GrahamVisitors Center (10-4 daily; free); the trees rise over masses offlowering azaleas and rhododendrons, all in peak bloom from aboutmid-April to mid-May. Open dawn-dusk daily; free. 2300 ArboretumDr. E., Seattle; 206/543-8800.

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