Last week we experienced a very un-March like weather, meaning beautiful warm sunny days typical to the second half of April. And it was the entire region having such a weather including Washington D C which is famous for the Cherry blossom festival. On Friday evening, we also got word that the cherry blossom blooms would be at their peak on Saturday and we decided that we would make this trip.

Getting to the city on saturday morning was a breeze and after a quick lunch, I started driving towards the main area of attraction which is the Tidal Basin – the crowds we ran into reminded me of the days in Churchgate train station in Mumbai many decades ago and the traffic was no better. It took an hour to find a parking place and walk another 20 minutes to get to the basin which is surrounded by the Cherry Blossom trees which were in full bloom and without a question was a beautiful sight as you can see from a few pictures below.

On one side, you have the Jefferson Memorial and as you see from there you get a view of the federal government buildings, the Washington monument, the mall that is lined with the museums and of course zillions of people milling around enjoying the bllom and the great weather we had on that day. Some pictures in around the memorial.

And as we walked around the basic, we got to see the Roosevelt memorial, one that have not had a chance to see before; somehow we missed this one which happens to be slightly off the main path that one takes around the mall. The memorial reminds the viewer of the Great Depression era, the struggles the people went through and the war of course. Some pictures from this area. An interesting one is the bright copper tone of Teddy’s index finger 🙂

As we walked further round the basin, we got to the Rev. Martin Luther King memorial which is a recent addition. The memorial is quite an interesting one and it took some time to understand the concept (at least in my head which could be completely wrong). The quote “Out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope’, leads me to believe the hope is the middle piece with Dr. King carved on it, moved out of the mountain of despair – I am yet to confirm my interpretation!!

Needless to say, my wife and I enjoyed the views and sights, weather and the awakening of the plants that will turn this barren and leafless landscape into myriad of colors and hues from the flowers, the pollen and allergies that goes with it!! Here are some random shots from our walk around that includes mug shots of us too 🙂

The selfie was taken with my SLR camera and not a phone !! No selfie stick for me 😉