Happy spring in Chicago! I can’t believe the arrival of spring has come so late this year…in May! The trees are starting to bloom and it was 80 degrees yesterday. It truly has been a long winter.

It seems like spring arrived everywhere else in the western hemisphere except Chicago because I’ve been seeing pictures of cherry blossoms and wisteria all over Instagram for the past month. And in Chicago, we just have bare trees. But finally, finally…this weekend, there are colors of spring.

I’ve been having cherry blossom envy from seeing pictures in DC and Paris and wished Chicago had its own cherry blossoms. So I did some research and found that there are indeed cherry blossoms in Chicago! The cherry blossoms are located at Jackson Park, just south of the Museum of Science and Industry. According to this article by Chicago Business, they were planted in 2013 and are also located at the Garden of the Phoenix. I think there are over 100 cherry blossoms planted and I’m sure over the next several years, the trees will be so lush. It won’t be the same about of cherry blossoms like DC but I’m happy with 100 trees.

We went location scouting here last weekend and the trees were bare. It’s amazing how much can change in a week! We are pretty happy that we came at the right time.

I didn’t want to miss out on the blooms this year so we went to Jackson Park this morning for the cherry blossoms and had our professional portraits done by Maggie Russo. At first I was planning on using a tripod and a remote to do our family portraits but realized that the skills of a professional photographers would be much better. I will share the pictures with Maggie Russo in a future post.

Below are some pictures we took after the shoot. I think they blossoms may be around for the next week, but for today they are so pretty and just perfect.

The best way to see the cherry blossoms in Chicago if you’re coming from the north side of Chicago is to take Lakeshore Drive South and exit Science Drive (the exit after 57th Street). You will have to pay at the lot to park but I’m sure the cherry blossoms are worth it, especially for portraits and just admiring their beauty. I just wished they would stay in bloom all spring and summer.