Saturday, April 4, 2009

Cherry Blossom Festival


Part of the excitement of moving up to Maryland was the prospect of being able to see the Cherry Blossoms in bloom in Washington, DC in the springtime. Today was the Cherry Blossom Festival and the blossoms were in full bloom and they were absolutely beautiful!

My best friend, Jenny and her family, Keith, Kyle and Katelyn came from Ohio to go to see the Cherry Blossoms with us. Truth be told, I don't know if I was more excited to see the Cherry Blossoms or spend time with Jenny!

Since we have been living in Maryland, Larry and I have been lucky enough to meet several wonderful new friends. Our friends, Matt and Stephanie along with their children Bella and Austin also came to see the Cherry Blossoms with us! It was great to have old friends and new friends enjoying the day with us.

Our day started out VERY early! We met up with Matt and Stephanie and followed them to a train station near DC. Kyle was SO excited to ride the train into DC! I do have to admit, it was a much easier way to get into DC than to ride around for 2 hours trying to find a parking space (yes, Larry and I did that on our first trip to DC on Valentine's Day).

We got into the city around 9:30 and found a spot to watch the Cherry Blossom parade. The parade route was packed, but we managed to get a decent spot. The parade was okay - nothing spectacular, but at least it had a few bands, floats and Alex Trebec (I did however think that Alex was Bill Clinton...oops!)! We wound up walking away from the parade before it was over and headed towards the monuments and Cherry Blossoms. We walked over to the Washington Monument and let the kids play around in the grass in front of the monument! Bella and Kyle loved chasing each other - they were hysterical together! Alex tried to chase them, but mostly fell over when he tried to run after them! I got a few good pictures of Alex running around with Bella, Kyle and Larry!

After the monument, we walked over to the Cherry Blossoms. There really are no words to describe how beautiful they were. They were in full bloom, a lovely pink color and looked incredible along the river! I would love to have a yard filled with them.

We ate lunch at a great little Japanese place near the zoo and after lunch went to the zoo. The kids had a blast running around to the different animal exhibits. The zoo in DC is definitely a place that we will be going back to. It is located along a busy DC street in a little neighborhood - a place that you will never expect it to be! It was huge and had so many different animals. And one of the best things is that it is owned by the Smithsonian people and it is FREE! Yes, free - another added bonus! Alex finally took his nap for the day at the zoo...I think it was nearly 5:00 pm before he finally stopped fighting sleep!

It was such a great day! We had a great time with all of our friends! We are so thankful that we got to spend such a nice day with everyone!


Here is a slideshow of some pictures from the day:

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