I Do Stuff…

Blossoms blooming on the side of the trunk.

Photo Gallery

It took a little arm twisting but I convinced Nancy to head into the city to see the cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin.  She knew it would be crowded and that driving would have been useless.  Fortunately perfect weather over the weekend lessened the blow of the large crowds and taking metro.  As we pulled up to the Vienna Metro I could see a line of people crossing the bridge over the highway.  When we arrived at the parking garage you would have thought it was a work day with how crowded it was.  After a quick survey everyone was waiting to get tickets, but there was no line at the SmarTrip machines.  Go to the head of the line, I got her a Metro pass and we were off to the city.

The route I planned for us had us getting off at Arlington Cemetery and walking across the Memorial Bridge.  The Smithsonian stop is the closest to the Tidal Basin and would have been the most crowded.  I was hoping to avoid a large portion of the people and to just do something different.  We walked across the bridge and stopped off at the Lincoln Memorial.  It has been a long time since I had been here and it was great to see it up close again.  The steps where filled with people hanging out and relaxing, inside you could hardly turn around it was so crowded.  As we looked across the reflecting pool towards the Washington Monument, people mingled and strolled along the wide paths on either side.

looking from Lincoln to Washington

The crowd was a bit much for Nancy so we headed to the Potomac to get our first glimpse of the cherry blossom trees.  This far from the Tidal Basin not many people where out and about which was rather nice.  As we got closers, the crowds started to thicken.  By the time we hit the FDR Memorial there was no hope of peace and quite.  The crowds where thick with tourists and I was loving.  Nancy generally doesn’t like huge crowds, but she kept her wits about her and drudged forward like a real trooper.  Along the basin the trees where numerous and thick with blossoms providing some exquisite views and picture opportunities.  One tree I spotted was quite popular because as I am setting up my shot I heard a bevy of SLR camera snaps.  I was really digging the blossoms and all the people.

We had enough of the blossoms and where getting hungry so we headed over to the Washington Monument to setup for a picnic.  We walked passed the World War II Memorial and stood in amazement at all the traffic, all these morons driving around looking for parking.  This was not the time to be driving, Metro was bad enough, but there was no hope if you where in a car.  Laughing at everyone we sat down for a some snakes and a quick nap.  We must have laid there for 30 minutes just soaking up the sun.  It was an gorgeous weekend after such a long hard winter, the warmth of the sun felt so good.

Once it was time to leave we headed to the Smithsonian station and back to Vienna.  This is when we realized just how busy the Metro was.  It took longer than usually for the Orange line to arrive and whisk us away down the tunnel.  When we finally arrived back at the Jeep it had been a long day but a well deserved break.  The weather was perfect and the blossoms were beautiful to see.

lobby of the Natural History Museum

Photo Gallery

I must say I picked a horrible day to travel to the city.  Saturday it did nothing but rain all morning and into the afternoon.  The weather reports I saw that morning indicated the rain would stop and the clouds would blow through by the afternoon.  I wanted to walk around the tidal basin to snap some shots of the cherry blossoms.  Their peak was the weekend before, so I was not having much hope, but I was determined to make it up there this year.  While waiting for the weather to clear I decided to stop by the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.

When I arrived at the Smithsonian Metro exit, despite my best efforts to miss the rain it was still falling.  Even though it was only a drizzle, I don’t like getting rained on.  Fortunately the walk to the museum is short, only a couple of blocks at most.  As I got closers I could see this huge line of people pouring out the front entrance onto the Mall.  As a native, I know about the entrance on Constitution Avenue and would try my luck there.  No love there either, two long lines snaked down the stairs and around the driveway.  After a few minutes in the rain I was passing security.  The guy did a cursory check of my bag and I walked through a metal detector.  I am almost certain the metal detector was not plugged in.

ROAR!

Inside, the ground floor was jammed with people, not to surprising considering the nasty weather outside.  It also reopened recently after being closed for remodeling, and throw in spring break with a lot of tourists visiting the city from who knows were.  There was all this commotion inside, a sea of people constantly moving and shuffling along.  I was really looking forward to a nice quite day at the museum but I could see that was not going to happen.  Instead I just headed up to the first floor to start exploring.

What a wide variety of exhibits on display.  I walked through the large Sant Ocean Hall, one of the many permanent exhibits on display.  Other exhibits I saw included soil, bones, dinosaurs (ROAR!), moon rocks and meteors.  I even attempted to see the Hope Diamond, but that was a lost cause, way to many people and I didn’t care to fight crowds.  But I did walk through the rest of the gem exhibit and saw some cool stuff.  Not only precious materials like diamonds, jade, gold and silver.  But also things like coal, granite, and a radioactive rock.

Then there was the Orchids Through Darwin’s Eyes exhibit that had a full display of various living orchids.  And the video about were all us mammals came from.  And another video I saw on the Rastafafari movement, something I had only heard about briefly.  The video explained where it came from, what is about, and like most religions the persecution its believers have gone through.  Walked through the savanna of Africa with different animals on display and a whole bunch of words.  So much to see I couldn’t see it all in one trip.

cherry blossoms

When I finally left the museum the weather did clear and it turned into a nice day.  The sun was shinning with a blue sky so I walked across the Mall towards the tidal basin to see the cherry blossoms.  Unfortunately 95% or so of the blossoms had already fallen and leaves started to appear.  That’s what happens when you arrive late to a time sensitive event.  To makeup for blossoms I did find a tulip garden.  It was in full bloom with a large variety of colors, got some good shots here.  Even without the cherry blossoms I still managed some shots of the tidal basin, the trees, and the Jefferson Memorial across the water.  The Jefferson Memorial was calling me while taking my photos so I took the short walk to the memorial.  They had a small stage with a live band playing, all part of the waning days of the cherry blossom festival.  I was surprised by the number of people hanging out on the steps listening to the music.  I stayed for a few minutes, but spent most of my time walking inside and around the memorial.

As the sun started to set I headed back to the Metro station for a short ride back to Springfield and my car.  The weather could have been better, but it turned into a nice day in the city.