A Quest to See the Cherry Blossoms

I have been keeping an eye on the progress of the cherry blossoms.  For as long as my family lived in Northern Virginia and Maryland, I've never been here when the cherry trees were blooming, so I knew I wanted to see them.  Plus, I haven't been to the MLK Memorial, so I could take care of two goals at once.  But it was hard to know the precise moment to go.  So, I chose yesterday, the last good day in terms of my schedule.

It's still a few days before peak bloom, but it was still a beautiful (but cold!) morning.  I headed over to the Metro at 7:15, and I was emerging from the Metro Center station as a clock chimed 8 a.m.  I was further away, but walking from Metro Center instead of changing to a line that would get me closer made me happy.  I headed down to the Tidal Basin.

I was surprised by how many coffee shops were closed for the morning, and I did wonder if there was something going on I should know about.  But throughout the day, the streets and sidewalks were emptier than I would expect in the capital of the U.S.  I've been hearing about this phenomenon, offices that haven't resumed a 5 day work week schedule, which means that there's no one there to shop or eat out.  There's certainly not a lot of apartment space downtown.

There were a few folks at the Tidal Basin when I got there, including one woman in a long, bright pink, satin gown.  I took pictures as I headed towards the Jefferson Memorial.  I haven't mastered the art of selfies yet, but I liked this one from early in the morning:

And here's a touristy kind of shot:

There would be many touristy shots throughout the day.  Here's the Washington Monument:

I didn't take pictures of the people wearing interesting varieties of cherry hats and headpieces.  I didn't take pictures of the busloads of students, the busloads of tourists.  I was glad I came early.

Along the way I stopped at all the Memorials.  Some were deeply familiar, like the Jefferson Memorial:

Some I had visited exactly once, like the FDR Memorial.  I was glad the Eleanor Roosevelt got a prominent place all to herself:

And some were brand new, like the MLK Memorial:

I walked the entire length of the Tidal Basin, which was lined with cherry trees the whole way.  At the other end, I came across this memorial to the process that brought these trees to us:

Then I headed back up to the museum district to go to the Renwick and maybe some others.  This post is getting long, so I'll write about the museums later.

By the time I got back to my seminary apartment, I had walked 8.4 miles, and my arthritic feet felt that distance.  But it was a wonderful day, worth every ache.