Chronic Wanderlust

Pink trees, sunshine, tourists and pollen: The Cherry Blossom Festival is once again taking over Washington DC. Japan’s peace offering of hundreds of cherry trees line Washington’s Tidal Basin, surrounding the Jefferson Memorial. In late March and early April, the trees go into full bloom – waving their gorgeous pink and white flowers in the sky.

I showed up to the Tidal Basin early Easter sunday morning and was already in the middle of the crowd. I strolled along the Tidal Basin, towards the Jefferson Memorial and back across the Reflecting Pool to the Lincoln Memorial. Despite the overpowering pollen, it was a great walk. Tourists snapped pictures, couples had picnics on the Mall and street performers played their instruments… it was nice to see such a lively Sunday morning in a usually sleepy city.

The history of the cherry blossoms is pretty interesting… in 1912, the first two of these trees were planted on the north bank of the Tidal Basin in West Potomac Park, given to the USA as a gift from Japan. In 1927, a group of American school children re-enacted the initial planting; the first festival was held in 1935, sponsored by civic groups in the nation’s capital. The festival continued to grow after WWII, being sponsored by many groups and the city government. As the popularity grew, so did the cherry tree collection – 3,800 more trees were given to DC in 1965. Today the National Cherry Blossom Festival is coordinated by the National Cherry Blossom Festival, Inc., an umbrella organization consisting of representatives of business, civic, and governmental organizations. More than 700,000 people visit Washington each year to admire the blossoming cherry trees that herald the beginning of spring in the nation’s capital.

As one of Washington’s most popular tourist attractions, the Cherry Blossom Festival draws hundreds of thousands of people into the city. As much as I love my wonderful hometown, DC does not have the infrastructure to handle everyone. The Metro gets backed up (when it’s even running!), traffic gets jammed and the police get confused. If you’re coming down to the waterfront, just take a bike and enjoy the ride… you’ll be glad you did!

The organization that set up and ran the festival really did put in an effort to make this year’s festival more user-friendly… but they forgot a couple important things…

- I appreciate the port-o-potties lining the festival… but remember that they smell like poo… when the wind blows, so does that awful stench. The Tidal Basin certainly smelled more like a toilet basin.
- Clean up! Renovations are great, the parks need it… but when you have having your busiest week of the year, you should clean things up first. The Jefferson Memorial is under renovation, so they simply put all the construction materials behind the monument, facing the water! Look at this beautiful photo of the waterfront… those giant cranes laying on the ground really take away from the natural beauty.

If you haven’t made it out to the cherry blossom festival yet, I highly recommend coming to DC next spring and witnessing the beautiful pink landscape for yourself! Bring a picnic, rent a paddle boat and RELAX

Filed under: Travel Photos, Travel Stories, Washington DC Tagged: | cherry blossom festival, cherry blossoms, jefferson memorial, Photographs, tidal basin, Washington DC