tidal basin: the pink version

It's hard to believe that this is our 8th year seeing the cherry blossoms in D.C. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the gift of the trees from Japan so there are tons of events going on for the next month to celebrate. The blossoms peaked much sooner than they usually do.

The last few years I have gone down at sunrise to see the blossoms and loved it so I went down again this year. It was cloudy nearly every morning this past week but finally Friday morning had a forecast of sun. I think all the photographers waited until Friday because the Tidal Basin was completely filled with tripods and monster lenses. It's such an interesting scene and this year seemed particularly crazy. While walking around I saw a car accident, a serious altercation between two runners who ran into each other (D.C. folks are a little uptight), and a woman crashed on her bike right in front of me.

Despite the craziness, it was a really beautiful morning (even if it was a bit hazy) and I loved taking my time wandering the tidal basin (without a stroller) and enjoying the early morning lighting. It was so interesting how much the blossoms had changed from our visit at the beginning of the week, transforming from white to pink.

Cherry blossom paparazzi!

I decided to change things up a bit this year and brought my bike with me. The Tidal Basin is a crazy place to navigate on bike so after I walked around there I rode my bike around Hains Point. It was such a beautiful, peaceful ride along a road entirely lined with blossoming trees. There were hardly any people around and blossoms were raining down on the path as I rode along.