An Afternoon at the Tidal Basin

Last Friday Zach finally had his giant exam to see if he's learned anything in the past two years of his masters program. It was appropriately brutal. More importantly, it was finally done, and just in time for the Cherry Blossom festival. The second he walked out of the test, we headed towards the metro and scurried downtown. It was a beautiful day, the blossoms were in full bloom, just the perfect day for a nice stroll along the tidal basin. Along with everyone else.

Ok, I'm going to complain once - just once - about the tourists. DC is generally such a lovely town. Clean,  pretty, abounding in free museums and monuments and polite people in suits who are to busy to actually go to any of those things, leaving them uncrowded and delightful. Not that I actually go and take advantage of those things, but I know I could. And then they come. It's not just that things get crowded. It's that they get crowded by rude, smelly, idiots. People who think it's acceptable to throw trash all over the metro and wade in monuments honoring the dead. And yes, you can easily tell the difference between tourists and residents. I don't know how exactly, but it's quite obvious. I know, I'm such a snob. There are some lovely people, sure. Some can almost be endearing like the women who excitedly exclaimed "Oh! How exciting!" after crossing a street and getting honked at by an impatient cab (which is pretty much just what happens when you cross any street downtown.) But, alas due to the law of large numbers there are just so many unpleasant tourists that I can't help but to dread them all. Things finally get nice, and then my dear city becomes inhabitable in the midst of the invaders ravaging. Oh well. Just try to imagine how lovely this would be without all the people.

Anyways, the basin was beautiful. I can't say that anything terribly exciting happened. We walked, we talked. It just felt so amazingly wonderful to be out in the Sunshine, enjoying life. Not a textbook or classroom in sight.

I may have been a little overzealous about documenting the occasion. I made Zach stop every couple of minutes for a million pictures, poor afternoon light and lack of skills be damned. It was just so lovely. Below I have far too many pictures (because I'm indecisive like that) as proof. You can find the few I didn't post here on my facebook.

All in all, it was a lovely afternoon. Jaded as I am, and even with the crowds, there is just something so simultaneously stunning and peaceful about the soft sea of pink blossoms. I highly recommend coming by some year if you ever get the chance. I'll promise to make an exception to my tourist aversion just for you.