Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Cherry Blossom Festival 2005


Cherry Blossom Festival 2005

K, curious to see what all the fuss was about, decided that we were going to go see those blossoms if it was the last thing we ever did. Now, it almost was because the traffic was insane and we kept making bad decisions so the trip down was long. Now mind you, it still wasn't that long but we had a little knowledge of how long it should take and the layout of the city and this made us just smart enough to make colossal mistakes and get frustrated about it. You know what they say about "a little knowledge." On the bright side, we happened upon some lovely sights such as these folks:


Arlington Bridge statue

But it was all good cause we made it there and it was beautiful. The piles of trees with the famed blossoms were nice, indeed, but look at these lovelies:


Magnolia trees in full swing.

They don't hype the Magnolia trees enough! They have a heady scent to match the grace of their blooms. We wandered around the trees near the Jefferson Monument, then hit up the JM for some thought and a few pics (not shown) and rowdy middle-schoolers. Apparently it's not uncommon in this area to take late-day field trips with your entire gang of hooligans decked in FBI hoodies and hats. Oddity, indeed.

Still, we managed to make our own calm in the storm and we watched the sunset over the Tidal Basin and the Washington Monument. Then we wandered around the FDR memorial (which K had never seen) and admired its picturesque stone and waterfalls. In one portion, I thought I remembered from my evening tour that there was a portion with a fossil theme, which prompted K to quip, "FDR: the Man, The President, The Trilobite." Heh. Funny man. Anyhow, I was wrong, they were all reliefs of people's faces. Lovely effect. And that, plus an uneventful drive home in which we didn't make one wrong turn!, is all of CBFest 2005. I leave you with a parting shot:


The sun sets over Washington, DC.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How long ago was it--6 years,7 years-- when the 5 of us roamed around the Capital smelling up motels with fuming nailpolish? I remember the FDR monument being beautiful. Is it still or were those just the changing impressions of a junior?

E.A.P said...

sri: I think I calculated it was about 6.5 years ago when we hit DC for our school trip. Juniors and college grads agree - the FDR Memorial is quite lovely. The rocks look a bit more worn beneath the waterfalls, but it's still lovely. I remember you and I really bonded over walking through it and we kept getting all philosophical on H's butt and she was like, "nuh-huh, I'm hanging with our foreign friend Ale because you two are sta-range." Mmmm, good times. What fun!

JMC said...

Maestrapescadora, your English teacher is either a filthy, malicious liar or has never been to Virginia... either way, (s)he is not to be trusted. In all seriousness, though, the spring blossoms are sublime right now. I am glad you are enjoying the spring in Washington. Cheers!