Cherry Blossoms

The Washington Monument, 3 April 2004, surrounded by cherry blossoms.

Seen from Pennsylvania Avenue traffic.	From the Mall under heavy cloud cover.

From the far side of the Tidal Basin.	Between the pillars of the Jefferson Memorial.

From the steps of the Jefferson.	And from the Mall again, at sunset.

It rained on and off all morning, the sky was overcast, our children's sports practices had been cancelled. We left to go downtown around 2 p.m., hoping that the parade crowds had dispersed and that the rain was over, spent more than an hour in traffic first in Virginia on the George Washington Parkway, then over Chain Bridge and on the Clara Barton Parkway in Maryland, neither of which had much blooming along the way yet. Went creeping in up 14th Street, away from Pennsylvania Avenue traffic and security. Parked at the Smithsonian (*singing virtues once again of being a Resident Associate and paying to use free museums*) and walked across the Mall from Natural History to the Tidal Basin and the Jefferson and FDR Memorials. By the time we reached the festival stage, the sun had come out -- a cool, glorious, gorgeous late afternoon. Headed home after 6, stopped for Chinese food. Wonderful day. More pictures to come.

discovered that there are screen caps of half-naked, wet Jack Aubrey swimming at Murph's Place and Sid's Play Place. Whee! I want my special edition DVD!