Blooming blossoms
"With the cherry blossoms near full bloom, a man peers through the fence to get a glimpse near the White House in Washington, DC, Saturday, April, 4, 2009."
Although I live less than an hour away from the nation's capital, I've never once witnessed the cherry blossoms. I've even been to Japan twice and never even seen the real thing there either.
That needed to change. Last year, after getting a last minute assignment, I failed to make it down to DC to see them.
The following weekend when I had off, and it was reported that they had blown off the trees due to passing thunder storm. Drats!
Waiting a full year for their return, I crossed my fingers hoping I wouldn't be thrown any assignments for the day of the huge Japanese festival that occurred on the same day as the blossom celebration.
With some luck, I got only one morning assignment between Baltimore and DC and then made the pilgrimage down south.
As per usual, I should have taken the metro as traffic was horrendous. The crowds really showed up in full force since it was probably one of the nicest weather days this spring.
Once we found parking, we shot right toward the food as we were starved. Again, we experienced large crowds and ended up settling for Thai food rather than Japanese food.
We wondered around for a couple hours enjoying the warmth of the sun and the blossoms. I wanted to make some pictures I could send to my friends in Japan and say thanks for the gift of the beautiful cherry blossoms, even if they had nothing to do with them.
After getting sunburned we made our way over to Temari Cafe in Rockville which is probably in my opinion one of the best real Japanese restaurants near home. They also have a Japanese grocery store, where I spent more than $20. Oops.
All in all it was simply a nice day in DC.
Although I live less than an hour away from the nation's capital, I've never once witnessed the cherry blossoms. I've even been to Japan twice and never even seen the real thing there either.
That needed to change. Last year, after getting a last minute assignment, I failed to make it down to DC to see them.
The following weekend when I had off, and it was reported that they had blown off the trees due to passing thunder storm. Drats!
Waiting a full year for their return, I crossed my fingers hoping I wouldn't be thrown any assignments for the day of the huge Japanese festival that occurred on the same day as the blossom celebration.
With some luck, I got only one morning assignment between Baltimore and DC and then made the pilgrimage down south.
As per usual, I should have taken the metro as traffic was horrendous. The crowds really showed up in full force since it was probably one of the nicest weather days this spring.
Once we found parking, we shot right toward the food as we were starved. Again, we experienced large crowds and ended up settling for Thai food rather than Japanese food.
We wondered around for a couple hours enjoying the warmth of the sun and the blossoms. I wanted to make some pictures I could send to my friends in Japan and say thanks for the gift of the beautiful cherry blossoms, even if they had nothing to do with them.
After getting sunburned we made our way over to Temari Cafe in Rockville which is probably in my opinion one of the best real Japanese restaurants near home. They also have a Japanese grocery store, where I spent more than $20. Oops.
All in all it was simply a nice day in DC.
posted by Patrick Smith at 8:50 PM
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