lots of cherry blossoms and people

For years I have heard people rave about the cherry trees blooming in Washington, DC, but have never managed to be here in April, so yesterday morning we decided to see what all the fuss was about. I didn't realize that the Japanese festival was taking place, the official parade was at 11am, that everybody and their brother was going to be downtown, but we soon found out when the Metro Center station was so crowded that we couldn't get on the train going to the Smithsonian and decided to walk. Then we stopped at a bookstore to use the potty and I tried to nurse Julia Ellen but was rewarded with milk upchucked all over my pants and her outfit. Only 15 minutes later did we run into problem #3 with the parade route cutting off our access to the National Mall and the view of all those famous trees.

After we finally got across the street, we wandered up to the Lincoln Memorial and took the elevator, bypassing all the stairs and then walked past the White House, not even attempting the closer Metro station.

Poor Charlie was so tired he fell asleep while I was giving him a piggy-back ride. Our bedraggled crew practically crawled into the house where Tim cooked up a triple batch of pancakes and renewed their energy enough to play outside. While I was pointing out flowering trees on the car ride home Mary said, "You mean we could have just seen the cherry trees on our block and NOT had to go through all that?"

It certainly would have been easier on all of us, that's for sure.