Cherry Blossom Festival in DC

Friday afternoon I drove into DC to see Dave's new work and to meet his co-workers. They're very nice, and he likes his job a lot. After work we took the metro to the Cherry Blossom Festival. This is the 100 year anniversary of the trees being given to the US from Japan, so there are 5 weeks of festivities.

Most of the trees are along the Tidal Basin. It's a "lake" near lots of the monuments. Across the water is the Jefferson memorial, behind us is the Washington monument.

Because of the mild winter and warm spring, the blossoms peaked really early. Last week, in fact! It's a good thing we went, because it rained all day Saturday and I bet most of the blossoms are gone now. The ones in our parking lot definitely are.

Part of the reason we went was to show Flat Stanley the Cherry Blossoms and a few of the monuments. Penelope really likes Flat Stanley, so we finally let him ride in the stroller with Penelope. :) I won't post all the Flat Stanley pictures so that it's a surprise for Emily when they get to her elementary school. Stanley is a politician this time. Last time he wore a historic costume to fit in at Mount Vernon.

We walked along the "promenade" (aka closed off streets) and people-watched and smelled all the good fair food.

See, here's the Jefferson memorial. All of the trees are on my right and left all around the tidal basin. My feet hurt too badly to walk all the way around. I think you get really good pictures from that side of the basin. P was also tired and hungry, so we headed back towards the car and had a nice dinner al fresco in the wonderful weather. P promptly fell asleep the second we got in the car to go home. It was a great Friday evening!