Cherry Blossoms

When Nora was a baby, the cherry blossoms bloomed in DC during a visit from my mom.  It was fun to be able to share our first trip to see the trees with Mom, and I was surprised by how well Nora managed the commotion.  We went on a weekday to avoid the biggest crowds, though, so Billy was unable to join us.

Friends have been posting pictures of the trees all week, so I knew they were in full bloom.  When we realized how nice it was going to be yesterday, we decided to get ourselves out of the house as early as possible in hopes of avoiding the biggest crowds.  We were down by the Tidal Basin from about 10am until noon, and since this was also when the parade was going on, it wasn't too crowded to be enjoyable.  The metro stations were pretty busy, but there were definitely more people arriving when we were getting out of there, so our trip was well timed.

I learned my lesson last time that shooting pictures with a smart phone is insufficient.  It's shady underneath the trees, but there is so much light reflecting off the water that it's hard to get a picture where the faces are not obscured in a shadow.  I still don't know much about how to work my DSLR, but we managed to get some decent pictures that I wanted to share.  It was really the most beautiful day.  I wish the weather could be like this always.

Apparently you are not supposed to climb on the trees.  In my defense, she really liked it up there but we kept her off after Billy told me that.

Trying to get Nora to pose for a photo when there are ducks and dogs in sight is generally futile.

When I took the photo above, a man asked if we wanted one of all three of us.  How did he get the best picture of the day with a stranger's DSLR and only two clicks?

We have not been to the MLK Jr memorial since it opened in 2011, so we were glad it was easy to access from the tidal basin.  Nora liked having room to run around, and she really wanted to touch the waterfalls, but she was too nervous to step into the spray to feel the wall by herself.

Let's try it again, Mommy!

We walked back around on the White House side of the Washington Monument, so we got to see the Lincoln Memorial, Reflecting Pond, World War II Memorial, White House, and a few of the parade balloons from afar.  One of them was shaped like a panda, and there was a rainbow float behind it, so Nora liked seeing those too.  It was nice to see all of the mall on such a beautiful day.  There has been scaffolding on the Washington Monument for years, and it always seems like the Reflecting Pool is empty when I go.

Not surprisingly, when offered a frozen lemonade and a hot dog for lunch, she chose the former.  "It's so tasty in my tummy, Mommy!"

Nora liked the "trees with flowers," and she had fun seeing all the sights, especially when she was allowed out of the stroller to wander.  But mostly she liked riding the subway in and out.  We got her to order the doors shut and tell the train to start moving right before it did, so she was full of giggles about that.  She was tired and it was past naptime by the time we got back, but as we walked out of the station, she said, without any prompting, "Thank you for taking me on the choo choo train!  I liked that."

This is going to be a fun summer.