We decided to take advantage of the very nice (albeit, windy) weather today. We headed out to the National Cherry Blossom festival around 11 am. We managed to catch the tail-end of the parade as we emerged from L’Enfant plaza and walked down 7th Street toward the National Mall. From there, we joined the mass of people making their way to the cherry blossoms. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced crowds quite like that in D.C. Fortunately, there were several roads closed and that made walked to the basin a little bit easier (although I felt bad for the people who decided to drive).
We walked the entire circumference of the basin (taking the less crowded route through the Franklin Delano Roosevelt memorial, rather than the waterfront). I’d estimate that we walked a total of 3 miles or so. We tried to go back via the Smithsonian station, but they were only letting passengers off at that station. (Just outside the station, the Scientologists had setup shop, hawking books, and I think, relaxation massages. What with how many tourists were in town, they had quite a few takers.)
We were back home around 2 pm. I went up into the guest room to lay down for a short nap and I fell asleep for 2-1/2 hours!
Around 5:30, we headed back into town, this time to have dinner at A.J. and Denisse’s. They had several friends over and Denisse made food that Kelly could eat, which was very sweet of her. We sat around talking, and then after dinner, we were forced to watch Marly and Me, much to my dismay. I’ve had a thing about sad movies about animals ever since I read Old Yeller as a kid. It didn’t matter. Everyone else wanted to see it and naturally, everyone was in tears at the predictable end of the movie, myself included.
We were finally home around 11 pm.
Originally published at From the Desk of Jamie Todd Rubin. You can comment here or there.
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