Oh my y'all...what a day. What a day! It has been a long time wish of mine to see the cherry blossoms in DC and this weekend; Saturday to be exact, was one of the days the blooms were considered to be at peak. A friend from work awesomely suggested we should go into DC and see them, especially since I'd never seen them before. I knew that since this weekend was the weekend of the Cherry Blossom Festival, DC would probably be crazy...I just had no idea how crazy, ha-ha!
Though the day was indeed a bit wild, I enjoyed (almost) every minute of it and the cherry blossoms were just as amazing as I've always heard. I'm so glad I finally got to see them and I can't wait to possibly make this a yearly tradition - although maybe I won't go see them the weekend of the festival, ha-ha!
So...just a few (okay...a lot) of pictures from my bucket list day!
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| The line just to purchase a fare card.... |
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| Finally on ye olde metro... |
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| So - is this a metro train or a can of sardines? Trick question - it's both! |
Danielle and I waited almost an hour just to buy Metro fare - it was absolutely nuts. I will say I was impressed by how calm and orderly people behaved; although the police hanging out at the Vienna/Fairfax station may have had something to do with it, ha-ha! The train started out quite empty, which was surprising given how many people were waiting to buy fare and get on the trains. However...by the time we made it to East Falls Church, that was not the case any longer - I was scooched over in my seat because an older gentleman thought that having his butt shoved into my shoulder was totally fine. Not! I get it, we were crammed together like sardines...it's fine. When we finally got to Federal Triangle, I was slightly concerned we wouldn't even be able to get off the train because of the mass of people trying to cram out the doors. The conductor started to announce "stand back, doors are closing" and so Danielle and I pushed a little harder against the people and popped out onto the platform right before the doors shut!
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| We discovered the Tulip Library - it wasn't quite in bloom yet, but still gorgeous! |
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| One of the few tulips that had peeked out to see the world. |
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| I think I'll need to go back just to see all of them in bloom! |
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| Orange tulips! |
From mid-April to early May there are nearly 100 varieties of tulips on display at the National Botanical Gardens Tulip Library, located at the edge of the Tidal Basin within perfect view of both the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument. It was created in 1969 and the tulip bulbs are flown in from Holland - there are about 10,000 - and they are planted by hand! I'm fairly certain that when all of the tulips are in bloom, it's absolutely amazing. I think I'm already planning another trip into DC to see the tulip library!
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| The main event - the cherry blossoms! |
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| Absolutely lovely. |
The Japanese cherry blossoms were a gift to the United States from Japan in 1912 - there are over 3,020 trees planted along the sides of the tidal basin and among other places in DC. The first Cherry Blossom Festival was held in 1935 and have continued ever since; although there have been a few hiccups, such as the Spring after the bombings of Pearl Harbor when some of the trees were cut down in anger. The US and Japan have since developed a friendlier relationship and some saplings of the trees are sent back and forth between the US and Japan to keep the lineage of the trees alive and well.
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| Selfie...with a chick in the background...because there were thousands of people everywhere! |
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| I love this picture! |
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| Hey - a better cherry blossom selfie! |
I definitely (unintentionally) offended a woman yesterday - totally didn't mean to! As we were walking across the bridge toward the Jefferson Memorial, Danielle and I were laughing and talking. I reached my phone out and snapped a picture and jokingly said "if you can't snap a picture without stopping, don't take a picture..." just to reference how we'd both been snapping pictures as we strolled and struggled through the crowds. A woman taking a picture up against the bridge said "then walk around me b*%$&". Oops! Sorry chick! Oh the joy of dealing with crowds!
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| The Washington Monument from across the Tidal Basin |
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| It was so windy! |
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| A busy day at the Jefferson Memorial... |
Once we made our way around the Tidal Basin, we saw some bright pink and yellow blooms across the street and so we ran across the street (jaywalking is a serious business in DC, we were living on the edge) and in this way, stumbled upon the George Mason Memorial - which had the most amazing Japanese Magnolias and Forsythia blooming! We took several pictures there because...hello...absolutely gorgeous! I should mention at this point we decided that since it was almost 2 and we hadn't eaten yet, we needed to decide exactly what we wanted to do.
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| Amazing! |
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| One of my favorite pictures I took the whole day! |
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| Another selfie! |
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| Just chilling with ol George Mason! |
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| A last look at the Washington Monument with all the trees! |
We decided around 2:30 that we'd cut out early and try to get some lunch back in Vienna or Fairfax; that really seemed like the best option. Even the food trucks lined up along the streets in DC had lines almost 50 people deep! It was crazy I tell you, absolutely crazy! Amazingly, getting onto the metro and getting back to Vienna was absolutely the quickest journey ever. I was pretty tickled by the House of Cards poster in the metro train we were on; DC does love the Underwoods it would seem. All in all, an interesting day to say the least - but also a day I'm so glad I experienced. I've been waiting a long time to see the cherry blossoms and I finally did!
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| Here comes the train! |
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| Ha-ha...this cracks me up! |
See the cherry blossoms at peak in DC? Check that one off the bucket list! Yahoo!
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