National Cherry Blossom Festival, 2008

National Cherry Blossom Festival, 2008, originally uploaded by theblackdog2071.

This past Saturday I was down at the National Cherry Blossom Festival with Rob and Dan. It was the predicted time that the blossoms would be at their peak, so I figured I would go this past weekend just so I could finally see them at the right time for once. Rob and Dan had plans in DC anyway, so it was only logical that we might as well meet up.

First of all, I'm glad I am a regular Metro rider and carry a SmartTrip card. The lines at the farecard machines in Greenbelt were a total clusterfuck. I think all of them had at least 10 people waiting to get farecards or to refill their Smartrip cards. As expected, the train was full, which was no big deal thanks to having good headphones and my Stiletto.

Getting to L'enfant Plaza, the platform for the Orange and Blue lines were crowded, and whan a train going our way arrived the first time, everyone and their mother tried to crowd on the train, which meant there were multiple tries before they could finally close the doors. By the time all was said and done, the people were packed in like sardines. What fools, if some of the people cramming in there at the last moments had just had the patience to wait another two minutes, they would have boarded a much less crowded train.

So I get to the tidal basin and listen to a performance of the Japanese Choral Society of DC before Rob and Dan arrive. We take our time wandering around the Tidal Basin looking at the trees, taking pictures, and dodging some of the crowds that were there. It would be an understatement to say that there were a lot of people there. I just pulled up Metro's subway ridership numbers for Saturday, March 29, 580,751. On the very same date last year it was 464,981.

Anyway, despite the crowds, it was good to be out, and it was a beautiful day. Eventually we wandered over towards the National Mall, where the Smithsonian Kite Festival was going on as well, so we got to see all sorts of kites. I had plans for the evening or I probably would have flown a kite as well. There are pictures of the various kites that were in the sky. There was one club that made a really good effort to make a dragon kite fly, but we think they needed more room to be able to move and get it going, instead of the small space they had in the "arena" that a competition was being held in.

Eventually we headed back towards Metro so I could board, but we got to the one Smithsonian Station entrance that was supposed to be the entrance, and they had made it an exit only, so we went over to the other entrance, and that was gated off, with a big crowd standing around it, so no one was getting in. Who the hell knows what was happening then, but it definitely left me wondering how the hell Metro was going to handle Nationals games if they can't seem to handle the festivals.

Rob and Dan were kind enough to take me over to the Archives/Navy Memorial Station, so I hopped back on the train to head back to Greenbelt before heading to Baltimore that evening.

Great day, I suggest if you're in the DC/MD/NoVA area within the next week or two to go over and see the blossoms. Perhaps the pictures I took will entice you to go ;-)