Easter Egg Hunt at Forest Lawn Cemetery

April 13, 2014

We're starting the week off with some photos of the Easter egg hunt we attended this past weekend, at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Norfolk. Some people may think a cemetery is a weird place for a bunch of kids to run around looking for plastic eggs, but I actually love the history and the atmosphere of cemeteries and Forest Lawn is an especially wonderful one, gorgeously maintained and almost more like a park than a graveyard.

Forest Lawn is the newest of Norfolk's public cemeteries, established in 1906, and is known for its beautiful art deco architecture (the community mausoleum features stained glass by Frank Lloyd Wright). Points of interest in the cemetery include the 111th Field Artillery Batallion and the 29th Infantry Division Memorial, erected in honor of fallen WWII soldiers in Europe, and the Seaman's Friend Lot, which serves as a final resting place for foreign soldiers who passed away at sea or upon arrival in Norfolk. Forest Lawn is also a natural arboreturm featuring dogwoods, crape myrtles, magnolias and holly trees and is absolutely meticulously cared for by staff.

As for the egg hunt -- it was the first year this event was held and it ended up being a little crazier than the organizers expected, with hundreds more people showing up than registered online. The result was that there were vastly more kids hunting for eggs than there were eggs to find. Anouk and her friends ended up scoring two or three each but that may have been largely due to parental involvement (I will say nothing further on this point for fear of incrimination -- but let's just say that I was pleasantly surprised to find that I can still outrun a gaggle of six-year-olds). Nonetheless, they had a blast just being there (except when the Easter Bunny popped up -- Anouk was having none of that and I'm not sure I blame her).

Before we left we walked around the graves (wouldn't these ones with Chinese calligraphy make AWESOME grave rubbings?) and found some amazing names (I think Iola was my favorite, never come across that one before) and even visited some of our family that was buried there.

All in all, it was definitely the most interesting egg hunt we've been to yet, and despite the kinks, we hope it will become an annual thing. To read more about how to donate to the Norfolk Society for Cemetery Conservation, which the hunt today benefitted, click here.

Have you hit up any egg hunts yet this season? How'd you make out?