Cherry Blossom Spring in DC

I recently had the pleasure of spending 48 hours in Washington DC right at the peak cherry blossom bloom. Whilst I was extremely happy to have experienced this, it was by pure chance that I was able to. I was coming off a wedding and family social trip, in desperate need of a decompress, and was lucky enough to be able to coincide my timings with my sister who lives out in DC. She was kind enough to have me over for a few days before I got back to the reality of life back home. Originally my goal was to do absolutely nothing. Literally nothing. I just wanted to sleep, relax, maybe watch some TV, and not think about anything for a little while. I had been to DC before so I’d done all the main sites already, so I wasn’t really interested in doing them again anyways. But as luck had it, the weekend I was visiting, was turning out to look like the peak bloom period for the infamous cherry blossom season! Under normal circumstances (as a standard tourist), if you are planning on visiting, definitely look to see them around sunrise time, research where you want to start and your parking in advance. I was with a local so I had the privilege of not having to think or plan, for which I am always going to be eternally grateful.

So Sunday morning, we were up just before sunrise, going on about 4 hours of sleep, driving down to the Tidal Basin, a reservoir just south of the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. I did a little bit of research on them (post-trip) and found out that their history goes all the way back to 1910, when they were originally gifted to the USA by Japan. The first round of trees unfortunately had to be destroyed due to disease and infestation, but the next round that arrived in 1912 survived and thrived. Some of these originals still live on today and bloom every year. Obviously they have now been supplemented with many more trees to create quite the scene in DC. The blooming of the blossoms is meant to signify friendship and spring, and it does just that. And how beautiful they were! I can definitely see this space to be completely calming and invigorating at the same time, that is if no one else was around (lol).

We did a loop of the Tidal Basin, starting around 6.30am, and it was already packed! People walking in every direction, tourists, locals, families and couples and dogs doing photoshoots, both amateur and professional photographers (myself being amateur of course). It was wild! Gorgeous, but wild. The views that you got though, once you stopped and just took it in, your background, the noise and the people, just faded away. We got super lucky with the weather too, clear skies and sunshine the whole time, making the view even more epic. From almost every angle the cherry blossoms just framed their backgrounds amazingly. No filter needed. As always, weather can be unpredictable, so I would recommend checking that also before you go, the path around the Basin is paved, but the surrounding is not so I can imagine in rain it might get quite muddy. Along the way we passed the Eleanor Roosevelt statue, Martin Luther King Jr Memorial, as well as the Lincoln Memorial and from a distance, the Washington Monument. All of great grandeur, but for approximately four weeks of a year, the focus remains on the blossoms. Along with the blooming of these flowered trees comes the National Cherry Blossom festival. Dating back to around 1927, when the first ‘festival’ was first noted to have taken place, this yearly event brings a myriad of activities and celebrations, from kit flying (remnants of which we did see stuck in a few trees) and parades to music and arts performances. Whilst I was only in DC for a couple days, I got what I needed out of it and then some! The sweet treats that you don’t expect or anticipate, those are the ones that show you how much there is for us to see and experience out there in the world, especially when we just take the pressure off ourselves and take things day by day. Rather than rushing and forcing things, just enjoy the moment.

If you’re visiting for the first time, and/or for a longer period of time, whether it be during blossom season or not, I would still highly recommend doing some more casual exploring and taking in some of these types of festivals when they happen. They really embed you into local life which should be on every travellers’ bucket list. And by casual exploring I mean take in the sights at your own pace. There is nothing worse than being rushed especially when you are travelling, so take your time and really enjoy it all. DC and its surrounding areas have a lot to offer. My first time there, I visited the US Capitol, the museums, the Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the White House (from the outside), I even got myself a library card from the Library of Congress (how to get it was another little tip from my sister of course!). Absolutely no use to me other than a keepsake. But it’s the memory that is now a part of the bigger picture, that of which is my travels. Since I already did all of the standard touristy stuff, when I visited this time, I didn’t have a list of things I had to see. I didn’t have to force things. I left it to chance, left it unplanned, and I got one of the best weekend’s I’ve had in a really long time. In other words, take the time to smell the roses/blossoms! You only live once so why rush through it.