A Washington DC Spring

Desperately Seeking Cherry Blossom

In the second April weekend, we traveled to Washington DC for the second time (the first time being on March 7, 2010 – see my post from last year). The reason: DC’s famous Cherry Blossom Festival! We carefully planned our weekend one month before, packed our camera and were ready to go experience some serious cherry blossom!

What a rip off! Turns out that the cherry blossom reached its peak in the first weekend of April and by the time we arrived in Washington DC, there were only 10 meager blossom trees left…  Of course, these trees were highly in demand and we ended up waiting in line with the other disapointed tourists to snap a picture of the one blossom tree left in front of the Washington Monument. So, behold below… the one and only DC blossom picture!

Nevertheless, we succeeded to put our disappointment aside and we visited the museums and sites which we hadn’t been able to visit in our previous trip. First of all, the Air and Space Museum. If Ward was writing this post (believe me, I’ve tried) he could tell you the type, year and make of every airplane, space shuttle and satellite we saw. But you’re stuck with me and I can only tell you, that there were a lot of them, mostly grey. Oh… and they were big. The National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery of Art were worthy of our second visit, this time, taking more time to admire the collections.

The National Mall by night was another site we missed out on last time. The Lincoln, World War II and Washington Memorial as well as the Capitol were beautiful lit after dark. We ended the trip with a Sunday morning relaxing stroll in Georgetown, admiring the beautiful houses and spring gardens.

So yes, we only saw a little bit of blossom but in the end, we did not regret our second visit. Turns out it doesn’t matter how many times you visit DC, you’ll never get bored!