Cherry Blossoms at Full Bloom

When we showed up at the Metro station last Saturday morning and had to wait in a line of maybe a half dozen people (per ticket machine), I thought that was crazy. Today, being a weekday, we had to miss the commuter busyness of the Metro, so we showed up around 11AM, shocked to see a line stretching back so far, we couldn't even SEE the ticket machines. (Note to self: buy SmarTrip cards for the whole family and load them). We get on at the last stop on one line. By the time everyone was on our train, most seats were filled. Thirteen stops later, it was PACKED. I was glad I didn't bring our stroller. Getting off at the Smithsonian stop (where everyone else going to see the blossoms was getting off), there were actually people taking pictures of how crowded the station was. We could barely get OFF the train, because there were lines for the escalators filling the entire platform.

As soon as we emerged from the underground and started walking, the kids all claimed starvation and the need to eat immediately or they would pass out. We stopped and ate sandwiches I'd packed. We always end up in DC at lunch time because we leave late enough to miss the morning commute, and want to head home before the afternoon commute... lunch time.

Once we were done eating, we joined the masses walking towards the Jefferson Memorial and the Tidal Basin. The blossoms WERE beautiful. The crowds actually felt about the same as Saturday (only Metro crowdedness proved to me that there were indeed MORE people).











We skipped the Jefferson Memorial having seen it on Saturday, but took the kids' picture with Waddles, (the beaver on the kids' National Park pins they are wearing in a lot of the pictures). Waddles reminds us to not pick the blossoms.




Baby X insisted on walking along holding this chain. Luckily, this part of the Tidal Basin wasn't AS crowded.













It was a beautiful day. Princess Sparkley kept complaining about how hot it was. It was probably in the low 80s. I reminded her that this was when we wanted to be walking around in DC rather than July or August.

We stopped to see the George Mason Memorial (since B's attending GMU).


I had to repeatedly yell at Baby X all day, "[Baby X], look, there's a duck on Mommy's head." I was trying to get him to look at the camera, but mostly he just said, "What, Mama? What, Mama? What, Mama?" So, then he was looking, but talking, not smiling.


George Mason


Colorful Washington Monument... taken from the George Mason Memorial.


Then we made our way further around the Tidal Basin toward the FDR Memorial.


It was too crowded on the bridge's sidewalk to step back and get the full effect of the Tidal Basin with both the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial... I tried.








Trying to get a lovely picture of all three kids (but somehow, the Washington Monument is ALWAYS crooked in my pictures and of course, the kids are not smiling, not looking, making weird faces, shadowed by baseball hats, etc.)








B saw the FDR Memorial several years ago when he toured DC on his own as a college student and rep for BYU's College Republicans. He is not a fan of FDR and told me that if we were going to see it (which, PS IS a fan of FDR, so we needed to at some point) we had to do it without him. So we circled the other side of the Tidal Basin this time and visited this enormous memorial. It's strange. Not so much a statue, but one side of the Tidal Basin dedicated to rocks and waterfalls and fountains and statues of FDR.





Then we SLOWLY made our way back to the Metro. The sidewalks were crowded. The kids walked slow. Baby X was not in a stroller (I knew it would be way too crowded to bring a stroller on the Metro) but walking (and being carried). By the time we reached the Smithsonian stop, it had taken forever (three hours since arriving for basically just walking around the Tidal Basin). And there were police announcing that the entrance we showed up at was CLOSED. Instead of battling the hundreds of other people trying to get on at that exact station, and that exact train, we pulled out our map, found the next Metro station, and walked to the L'Enfant Plaza stop. Not so crowded. A man was nice enough to give me his seat since I was holding Baby X which is difficult to do while standing on a train. Then the lady next to him gave Buddy her seat so I didn't lose him. Which was nice because the train got very crowded very fast. AND, when the train pulled up at the Smithsonian stop to load all those people, we were already on it. It was CROWDED all the way home. Pushing, yelling, swearing. I was glad we were all in seats (with Baby X on my lap, Buddy, Princess Sparkley and I can all sit on one row - 2 seats).

Shockingly, this is just some of the pictures (I took nearly 90 today).