Cherry Blossoms

As always, you can go to the group's flickr page for more photos.

The Congressional recess happened to coincide with the National Cherry Blossom Festival. It is centered around the Tidal Basin which is just off of the mall, near the Washington Monument and where the Jefferson Memorial is located. I went to the Tidal Basin during the first week of the recess to try and see the cherry blossoms. I walked there from the Capitol, but it was a very long, hot walk and when I got there it was packed, I was barely able to walk down the sidewalk because there were so many people there. I decided to leave pretty quick.
Because of the recess, I was given off Wednesday because we tend to have more desks than interns and with me the only full time day they decided to have me take the day off. With a lot of time, I took the Metro to the Smithsonian stop and made the short walk over to the Tidal Basin. Most of the cherry blossoms were past their prime. There wasn't as much pink as I had hoped for. There were still some trees that were in their prime, but unfortunately not as many as I had hoped.


As you can see from the pictures, I was able to get some good shots with the cherry blossoms, including the Tidal Basin which was filled with paddle boats. Although there were still all the stands, signs, posters, gift shops and porta pottys were still there, it simple wasn't the same as if all the trees had been in their prime. Either way, it was still a relaxing afternoon with some beautiful views.