April 10, 2005

I pulled on my super-duper tourist disguise and walked down to the National Mall where I went undercover to snap these shots of the famous Washington, DC cherry blossoms.

Click on any picture for a full-sized version.

Welcome to Washington, keep your hands off our trees. OK, the sign is fine, but I'll tell you right now that very few people obey it. Rest assured, though, our National Park Tour guides are doing their part to protect the trees, no matter what the cost - while visiting the Cherry Blossoms, I briefly joined a tour led by this guy. This guy told us,

People tell me that I have the best job in the world. I get to walk around outside in this beautiful weather, I get to talk to people from all over the world and tell them about this great city's rich history. I say, yes, there are good parts - but it's not all fun and games. For instance, just a little while ago I had to tell an 8 year old girl that she couldn't keep the cherry blossom flower that she was wearing in her hair. I had to tell her that she can't even pick them up off the ground, because then I'd have no way of telling if she picked it or picked it up. My job isn't so great then, is it?
(paraphrased)

OK, Officer Asshat. For those of you that haven't been here, let me tell you something - there are a bazillion cherry blossom flowers on the ground. Today I saw about 100,000 people picking them off the trees, picking them up from the ground, etc. Literally everyone is walking around with them. And this guy yelled at an 8 year old girl? And he's now relating the story? What a Twit. With a capital "T."

Hundreds of thousands of people flock to DC to see the blossoms on the cherry trees that encircle the tidal basin pool.

This is the Jefferson Memorial, cherry blossoms to the left.

This is my attempt at an "artistic" shot of the Jefferson Memorial, through cherry blossoms.

Washington Monument and blossoms- the Jefferson Memorial is at my back here.

Closeup! This would make for a nice Windows background. (*free for personal use only ;-)

Another shot of the cherry blossoms encircling the tidal basin pool.

The cherry trees that make this festival possible were a gift from Japan to the US back in 1912. Accordingly, most of the restaurants at the cherry blossom festival are oriental in nature. I didn't stick around there long, as I'm not one for big crowds, but I did stay long enough to take this picture, just for our Wisconsin Hockey fan readers -

say it with me now - GOALIE, SIEVE, _______(click here for the rest)___________

Posted by jkhat at April 10, 2005 12:11 AM

    The trackback entry for this page is : http://www.inthehat.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/817